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Overnight Fire Destroys Local Pet Cemetery, Firefighters Find Ruptured Gas Line

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A very large fire burned through a Southwest Miami-Dade business overnight Wednesday.

Firefighters spent much of the night trying to extinguish the flames and now investigators are looking into what started this massive fire.

Pet Heaven Memorial Park located at West Flagler Street and Southwest 109th Avenue appeared to be completely destroyed.

The business provides services to families dealing with the loss of a pet.

It's known locally as the 'Pet Cemetery' and is a place that has been a part of the community for a very long time.

Firefighters got the call just after 9:30 p.m. about heavy smoke and flames that erupted at the building.

Once battling the flames, they discovered the reason it was so difficult to contain.

"They found heavy fire and smoke shooting out of the roof of the building," said Lt. Kristen Miller with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. "We went into what we call a defensive attack immediately due to the intensity of the fire. During the course of the firefighting we discovered there was a ruptured gas line which was why it was so difficult to extinguish the fire."

Once firefighters got that that gas line secured then they quickly started making progress.

No other buildings were damaged and the building was unoccupied.

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