A cloth toy accidentally set ablaze by a child was the catalyst of a much larger inferno that engulfed and destroyed a portion of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s $7 million mansion last week, a new report reveals.
The massive blaze was not particularly easy to extinguish either, according to the Davie Fire Rescue Department’s incident report, forcing some firefighters to evacuate for more air and use different plans of attack to douse it.
Ultimately, Hill’s mansion incurred $2,342,480 in damages.
Hill was at practice in Miami Gardens at the time of the fire. Two children, his wife and mother were in the home. No one was injured.
“Although it sucks to see rooms destroyed and everything you worked for destroyed, my main thing was health and making sure my kids are alright,” Hill said at a media scrum in front of his locker room Thursday. “My wife’s good, my mom’s good and my nephews are good. So that’s all that matters.”
At the moment, Hill and his family aren’t staying in the house.
“Right now, it’s a transition for us. But that’s what players do. We find a way to bounce back,” he said. “That’s what life is.”
HEAVY, BLACK SMOKE AND 120-DEGREE HEAT
During the early afternoon of January 3, two children inside Hill’s home discovered a lighter they thought was a toy, the report read.
They accidentally lit a toy on fire. Then, in fear, threw it into their room’s closet and ran.
Firefighters determine what caused the blaze in Tyreek Hill’s $7 million mansion
After sifting through the aftermath, a Davie Fire Inspector and State Fire Marshals confirmed that was the fire’s origin and ruled it an accident.
Over the next five hours, about 25 firefighters battled the blaze, which came with particular challenges.
The first unit at the home saw heavy black smoke as they walked upstairs, trying to find the second-floor room from which the fire was emanating, the report read.
They entered several rooms trying to locate the source but were unsuccessful. One room was reading a temperature of 120 degrees with no flames. There was so little air that the firefighters had to step out of the home and alternate turns with other units.
Firefighters were able to discern the blaze may have entered the attic.
Attempts were made to penetrate the ceiling but to no avail. Crews on the roof continued trying to cut through to ventilate the fire, but conditions worsened. And they, too, needed to evacuate.
Eventually, firefighters confined the blaze in the children’s bedroom and doused it.
“Sometimes you have things happen, you’ve got to find a way to adjust to adversity,” Hill said. “So we just had like a slight adversity, and we’re going to find a way to face it. “
