Tamarac Man Dead, Wife Hurt After Car Collides With Lauderhill, Florida Fire Marshal
TAMARAC -- A Lauderhill fire official headed to a blaze in an apartment building was involved in a collision on North University Drive on Monday night that killed a man and critically injured his wife, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.
The crash occurred at 7:17 p.m. near University Drive and Northwest 78th Street in Tamarac while Lauderhill Fire Division Chief Marc Celetti was headed south to a fire in an unmarked Ford Explorer with its emergency lights on.
Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said a northbound 1995 four-door Mercedes Benz apparently turned left into Celetti's path and the two vehicles collided.
Coleman-Wright said investigators think the Explorer's emergency lights were working and that the fire official had the green light at the intersection. BSO is continuing to investigate the crash.
Coleman-Wright said the couple in the Mercedes were taken to North Broward Medical Center, where Sol Marvine Teich, 79, of Beechfern Circle in Tamarac, was pronounced dead. His wife, Charlotte Teich, 75, was critically injured and is undergoing treatment.
Celetti was treated and released at University Hospital.
Andres Diaz, who was driving on University and saw the crash, told WTVJ-Ch. 6 that the couple in the Mercedes didn't yield to the Ford Explorer. He said the Ford Explorer appeared to be traveling at a high rate of speed.
Diaz said he walked to the couple's car and saw both were critically injured. He said the fire official appeared "normal" and was walking around and talking on the phone.
From the south, Broward Sheriff's deputies redirected all traffic on University at Northwest 72nd Street, just north of McNab Road and about 3/4 of a mile south of the accident scene. The area is a busy commercial strip.
The Lauderhill fire was reported around 7 p.m. in an upstairs apartment at 5806 NW 22nd St.
A mother and her two children were at home at the time of the blaze, which fire officials said started in a bedroom.
The mother handed her children to neighbors on the first floor to escape the flames and then jumped from a balcony to the ground, injuring her ankle, said Lauderhill Fire Lt. Robert Aziere.
Damage was estimated at about $150,000. The cause is still being investigated.
Aziere said four families were displaced and were being assisted by the Red Cross.
Edna Destiny was with her family in a downstairs apartment when she heard neighbors banging on her door yelling fire and urging them to get out.
"I was scared," she said, after grabbing her four children, ages 12, 10, 7 and 2 and running outside, not even taking time to grab any clothes or belongings.
"Life is safer than getting burned," she said from a sidewalk Monday night across the street where a crowd of neighbors gathered.
Lauderhill firefighters extinguished the blaze and were investigating the cause of the fire Monday night.
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