A lavish South Beach mansion known the “North Bay Road castle” has been engulfed in flames. The smoke made an impressive plume, billowing thick gray clouds above the gorgeous estate. Because of it’s unique location on the Bay, firefighters approached the fire from both land and water.
Below is a video of the fire. There is also a picture gallery of the castle before the fire at the end of this post.
Officials say that the home was empty at the time of the fire, and no one was injured.
Below are photos of the castle pre-fire, which was built in 1925 and contains 10 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, and between 9,000 and 11,000 square feet. Several real estate listings price the home at $6,900,000. According to this listing at trulia.com, the property was in need of renovation and restoration. The house has been vacant for two years and been vandalized by vagrants who found a fantastic playground in the strange and beautiful estate. Some of the amenities included a billiards room, both indoor and outdoor pools, home theater, gym, and “amazing views” of both the bay and downtown.
4462 North Bay Road did not have the eccentric medieval look accented with turrets and gargoyles until the 1990s, when captain Mike Burke, founder of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, personalized the mansion. He was a hard-drinking man caught up in romantic dreams and notions which were reinforced by the fact that he bought his first boat, “the Hangover” for Windjammer on one intoxicated night back in 1947.
Burke had had trouble selling the incredible estate when investor Antonio Rodriguez snatched it up for $7.6 million in 2007, at the peak of the housing boom. Since then, the price had plummeted $500 thousand and now the fairytale mansion, born from the twinkle in a drunken dreamer’s eye, is truly ruined.
