A family who lost their business when an enormous fire spread in Opa-locka shared an emotional reunion with the two lives the flames didn’t touch: their dogs.
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The pups, Fantasma and Mimi, disappeared when the fire broke out at a junkyard near the 13100 block and Cairo Lane on Monday evening.
Gary Lopez felt like he’d lost his best friends.
“I don’t have kids, so those are my kids,” he said.
Lopez spent most of Monday night waiting outside the scorched business, Gary’s Auto Parts, that has been his family’s livelihood for the past 35 years.
His pet dogs were nowhere to be found.
But on Tuesday morning, barking sounds came from the smoldering ruins more than 17 hours after the flames broke out.
Fantasma and Mimi raced at Lopez. He cried and rubbed their bellies as they danced and barked around him in glee.
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“That feeling can’t be beat,” he said, his voice cracking. “These are smart dogs.”
Lopez’s mother burst into tears when she saw the dogs were alive.
“You’re saved!” she cried in Spanish as she greeted them.
It’s not clear where Mimi and Fantasma were hiding, but somehow, they escaped the flames, and are now safely back with the Lopez family.
Lopez had plans to carry on the business from his parents, but now that seems unlikely.
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Still, what he thought was lost has now been found.
“I just felt relief,” he said. “That’s like, your best friend.”