PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Three people were sent to a hospital, two were trauma patients, after a house fire Thursday morning at a gated community near Boca Raton, according to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
Fire gutted their home in the Wedgewood Estates community just west of the Boca Raton city limits.
Chopper 5 was above the house on Eagle Run Drive shortly after the fire was extinguished.
Neighbor Harold Gretzky said three people, including an elderly woman, lived at the home.
"People are shocked," Gretzky said. "This is probably the worst thing that has ever happened since the development was founded in 1987."
Gretzky said the entire subdivision could see the flames and hear the sirens shortly after the fire broke out.
The fire was contained to the home and did not spread.
Before firefighters arrived, neighbors said a bystander, who happened to be in the area, pulled one of the residents from the home after running toward the burning building.
"He ran towards and pounded on the door with flames visible," Gretzky said. "And that takes a lot of guts. Had this happened in the middle of the night, when nobody was around, we could be talking about more than one house."
After the three individuals were sent to the hospital, there was a sign of hope. Firefighters saved a cat inside the home.
There is still no word on the conditions of the people who were taken to the hospital.
Investigators are now trying to determine what caused the fire.