‘BEYOND THE FIRE THERE IS HOPE’: KEY LARGO RALLIES BEHIND GRANDPARENTS WHO LOST HOME

On the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 26, one day after Thanksgiving, 78-year-old Nimia Morejon lay down to take a nap in her Key Largo home. She had just fried tostones and yucca in her backyard kitchen and wanted to rest before her 83-year-old husband, Oriol, came home from fishing.

She woke up with a start by the sound of her bedroom window’s glass breaking. Voices shouted, “Fire! Fire! Fuego! Fuego! You!” 

Two local women, Alyssa Courant and Michele Maraugha, had been walking by and saw flames curling around the back of the house. Alarmed, they checked the windows and saw Nimia sleeping, broke the glass, woke her up and dragged her to the street.

Once the group was on the street, explosions boomed from the backyard kitchen: one … two … three. Then they watched as flames raced through the entire trailer and neighbors dragged over hoses in an attempt to stop the inferno. The Key Largo Fire Department arrived and told the entire group to back away while they doused the blaze. The home was lost.

On Nov. 30, Nimia’s daughter, Nancy, showed Keys Weekly the charred embers of the trailer.

“The city has deemed it uninhabitable,” she said. The family plans to demolish the trailer and buy Nimia and Oriol a brand new home. 

“They deserve it,” Nancy said, in tears, looking down and kicking ash with her shoe.

The reason for the fire? Nimia had not turned off one of the gas burners. The stove top simply heated up while she was napping, then burst into flames, leading to the explosions.

“She feels bad,” Nancy said, then translated for her mother.

“I’m not happy,” Nimia said in Spanish. “I’m not eating right, not sleeping right. It’s repeating in my head.”

“She has post-traumatic stress,” said her grandson, Michael, who was also on the site with Nancy and his father, George, to help Nimia and Oriol clean charred debris.

The family explained that Nimia and Oriol’s home was a labor of love for the couple, who live in Hialeah and come to Key Largo twice a month. They arrived from Cuba with their children in 1967 with nothing but the clothes on their backs and slowly built a life and a large family that includes four grandchildren and six great-grandkids. 

With that same determination, Nimia and Oriol are now rebuilding their Key Largo home. And the whole family is doing their part to help. For example, their granddaughter Ashley Perez started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the demolition of the old trailer, which was not insured, and a new home.

“Beyond the fire there is hope,” said Nancy, watching as her 83-year-old father cleared glass from a broken window. She is moved by all the help from Courant, Maraugha and many neighbors, who, in addition to saving Nimia’s life, tried to douse the fire and brought over lunches and electrical power cords from their own homes. Nancy said the Good Samaritans refused when she offered to pay their electrical bill. The family is also extremely grateful to all the first responders.

Nimia, a colon cancer survivor, is sad but also undaunted.

“This country is good luck,” she said. “Everything here has been good since we left.”

“The Cuban people are very resilient,” said Michael. “They made something out of nothing. We don’t quit. This is just another hurdle.” 

To donate to the Morejons’ effort to rebuild their home, go to www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-grandparents-home-after-fire.

Charlotte Twine fled her New York City corporate publishing life and happily moved to the Keys six years ago. She has written for Travel + Leisure, Allure, and Offshore magazines; Elle.com; and the Florida Keys Free Press. She loves her two elderly Pomeranians, writing stories that uplift and inspire, making children laugh, the color pink, tattoos, Johnny Cash, and her husband. Though not necessarily in that order.