Breaking News--St Petersburg Fla--5-Alarm Apt. Fire, Residents & Firefighters Injured

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There is currently a 5-Alarm Apartment Fire ongoing in St. Petersburg Fla.

Several Firefighters are reported to be injured.

This is the only link I have right now...According to Bay News 9

________________________
Courtesy of Bay News 9

There is a five-alarm apartment fire ongoing in St. Petersburg.

The blaze is located at Town Apartments North at 1950 59th Ave. North. Paramedics are treating several patients, including several firefighters who suffered heat exhaustion at the scene.

Thirty-three units are on the scene, including ambulance units. The apartment complex has been evacuated.

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Update

At this time according to local news the fire is still burning out of control and is being fanned by the high winds associated with the storms that are pounding the area. Firefighters were also hampered by lack of water supply. The initial injuries to firefighters are apparently just heat related at this time.

Looking at the call status board for Pinellas County I count a total of 55 different units identified as being on the scene. This number includes Command staff, Rehab Units and police.

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Follow Up

The fire destroyed an entire building. Suppression efforts were hampered by lack of available water supply, weather and construction features that included common attics, wood frame construction and buildings that were 30+ years old. Here is the link to the story which includes pictures. I am attempting to attach the video link also.

The story:

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/22/Southpinellas/Fire_ravages_condos.shtml

No water:

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/22/Southpinellas/Once_again__not_enoug.shtml

Video

56K

http://www.wtsp.com/video/player.aspx?aid=4026&sid=3291&bw=lo

Hi Speed

http://www.wtsp.com/video/player.aspx?aid=4026&sid=3291&bw=hi

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Othere News Source Reports

New Channel 8 video

http://multimedia.tbo.com/multimedia/popup/video/2003/0621fire.htm

TAMPA TRIBUNE

Fire Razes Building In Condo Complex
BY STEPHEN THOMPSON [email protected]
Published: Jun 22, 2003


ST. PETERSBURG - Exhausted from working the graveyard shift, Rosalie DeHaven was asleep Saturday afternoon when she was awakened by the smell of what she thought was the motor on her fan burning out.
The feisty 78-year-old nursing supervisor said she figured she couldn't do anything about the apparently broken appliance. She was about to go back to sleep when she heard what sounded like men working on the roof.

Partly out of curiosity, partly out of irritation, she decided to open the front door of her condominium at Town Apartments North. It was then, she said, she realized she had sized up the situation wrong.

Thick smoke enveloped her, and a firefighter appeared out of the haze. ``He grabbed me and practically carried me down three flights of stairs,'' DeHaven said later in the condominium complex's clubhouse, still wearing her nightgown. ``I didn't even have time to think.''

An early afternoon fire that started in one of the units in DeHaven's building had reached the roof. Fueled by wind gusts, it spread in both directions and eventually destroyed all 54 units in the three-story, L-shaped structure, fire and condominium complex officials said.

``It was like a blow torch going through the building,'' said Richard Graham, the chief of the Lealman Special Fire Control District.

DeHaven's building is one of 31 at Town Apartments, a 55-and-older community at 1900 61st Ave. N. that houses 1,200 to 1,300 people, manager Elaine Rutter said.

At least a dozen of the residents had to be carried out, because of their age or physical infirmities, Graham said. One was taken to a hospital for a chronic condition unrelated to the blaze, and two of the dozens of firefighters who fought the blaze were transported for treatment of heat exhaustion, he said.

Altogether, 37 residents were displaced, Rutter said.

Fire officials hadn't determined the cause. But Edward Mulkey, the maintenance supervisor, said two workers were installing countertops in Apt. 311 when a bottle containing a chemical spilled and was ignited by the pilot light in the unit's gas stove.

The building, erected in 1965, has fire walls between the individual condominiums, but they only extend to the ceiling of the third floor, Rutter said. Between that ceiling and the roof is a large crawl space through which the fire is believed to have rapidly spread.

Lou Sclafani, district chief of the Pinellas Park Fire Department, said hydrants on the property did not provide enough water for trucks attacking the blaze to spray at full capacity. Two other hydrants were found, and firefighters, late in the attack, also drew water from the lake on the property.

But, given how quickly the blaze spread, they probably couldn't have saved the building, even if they had more water, Sclafani said.


Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-3303.

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Follow-up--fire Dept Meets with Occupants

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/23/Southpinellas/Condo_fire__questions.shtml

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Update

Residents Return After Condo Fire
By STEPHEN THOMPSON [email protected]
Published: Jun 23, 2003




ST. PETERSBURG - A day after fire swept through a 54-unit condominium building, firefighters were escorting residents back to their apartments Sunday to see what, if any, of their belongings could be salvaged.
Investigators remained mum on the cause of the blaze Saturday afternoon at Town Apartments North, a 55-and-older community at 1900 61st Ave. N. But they did not refute reports from the maintenance supervisor that two workers were installing counter tops in Apartment 311 when a bottle containing a chemical spilled and was ignited by the pilot light from a gas stove.

Eight people were injured. Three were firefighters suffering mainly heat exhaustion, said Richard Graham, chief of the Lealman Special Fire Control District. The other five were residents who were either overcome by smoke or whose chronic health conditions were exacerbated by smoke or stress.

Graham said the condominiums were color-coded to help firefighters who accompanied returning residents determine how safe it was to go into a particular unit.

A condominium coded red, for instance, was off-limits. A firefighter could accompany a resident into one coded yellow, but was expected to use caution. And those coded green generally were safe.

Most, if not all, of the third floor of the three-story building was coded red. So were the second-story units into which some third-story units had collapsed.

A dollar estimate of the damage was not available, and the condominium association had not decided whether the building should be razed, said Elaine Rutter, manager of the complex.


Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-3303.

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Update

Condo fire, questions smoldering
As the remnants of Saturday's blaze were doused, a fire chief responded to criticism and homeless residents wondered about their future.
By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 23, 2003


ST. PETERSBURG - Water was the problem and not the solution Sunday as rescue workers tried to help dozens of families ousted from their homes Saturday by a blaze that gutted the top floors of a condo building.

Officials were concerned that the blackened, three-story building at 1950 59th Ave. N might cave in from the weight of at least 10 hours of steady rain.

"There is no roof on that structure," said Lealman Fire Chief Richard Graham. "Just the weight of that water can make the building unstable. Look around. There's a foot of water in the parking lot."

The building was still standing late Sunday.

Earlier in the day, residents of the Town Apartments North clustered in small groups at the community clubhouse and filled out forms with the help of Red Cross volunteers. They sifted through mounds of clothing, taking a T-shirt here, an umbrella there.

Firefighters from the Lealman Fire District, an unincorporated area just outside of St. Petersburg, held a noon meeting with about 40 residents.

The fire chief initially told them they would not be able to enter the building to retrieve personal items. Later, some residents were allowed to enter the first floor, which was intact.

Graham said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the damage.

Residents said they have heard two accounts of how the fire started Saturday. One version had a person pouring chemicals down a sink, causing an explosion. Another held that kitchen remodelers somehow sparked the fire with flammable materials.

Graham said he is checking into both accounts.

Pinellas County inspectors will have to determine if there is structural damage to the building. Firefighters were still putting out "hot spots" on Sunday. Their efforts were hampered by several nearby lightning strikes.

By 3 p.m., they were rolling up and putting away more than a mile of firehose. That's when residents from the first-floor apartments were allowed to return with firefighters to pick up belongings.

Graham said the damage would not have been so bad if the building, erected in the 1960s, had a sprinkler system or fire barriers between the units. He said the fire spread quickly because it got into the attic and ran through each third floor unit.

The fire started around 1:20 p.m., Graham said. A mail carrier ran around knocking on doors, telling people to get out. When firefighters arrived, they focused on evacuation because of a concern about explosions. By then, the fire was spreading quickly.

Graham expressed anger at his department's efforts being compared to a fatal condo fire last year at the Dolphin Cove development in Clearwater. In that case, water did not flow out of the building's central water system and firefighters were not aware that the hydrant closest to the building was broken.

In Saturday's fire, the hydrants worked, but there weren't enough of them to handle a blaze of that size, Graham said. Firefighters eventuallysiphoned water out of a nearby pond.

"This is not Dolphin Cove," Graham said. "We had a water supply the entire time we were there. Did we have enough water? No. Because one hydrant isn't going to do it. We wound up with four hydrants. We knew the building was going to sustain massive amounts of damage."

Residents were angry and grief-stricken after Sunday's community meeting. Several did not want to be interviewed. Others said they had lost everything.

The Red Cross said they have helped about 20 people with things like replacement prescriptions and clothing.

"They were really lucky that quite a few of those homeowners were snowbirds and up north right now," said David Wilson with the Red Cross.

Bob Olson attended the community meeting for his father-in-law, Jim Nelson.

"They lost everything," Olson said. "It looks like his place is totally gutted out. They didn't have the time to get their eyeglasses. They just woke up from their nap."

Olson said Nelson paged him frantically on Saturday. Now Nelson and his wife, Dorothy, are staying at Olson's house in Tampa.

"They don't have basics or any form of ID," Olson said. "All their lifetime belongings are gone."

- Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at 727 445-4157 or [email protected]

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Follow Up...Hydrant Controversy Continues

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/29/Southpinellas/Hydrants_as_hard_to_f.shtml

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Firefighters Make Good Out of Bad--Public Interest

Firefighters returned to the scene to enter the building that residents were not allowed to go into. Using information from residents relating to location of personal items such as jewelry, family pictures and momentos, firefighters retreived what they could find for the displaced residents.

Story and Pictures.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003archive/07/03/Floridian.shtml

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Investigation focuses on kitchen/stove

Probe of fire focuses on stove
"It looks like the stove just caught on fire," a sheriff's spokesman says. Another area of interest: fire stops.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 25, 2003


LEALMAN - With too few hydrants to tap, firefighters were hard-pressed last week to save a three-story condominium. This week, inspectors concluded that deficiencies in the 37-year-old building's construction were as much to blame for the catastrophe.

Hydrants "would have helped, but the outcome, I think, would have been the same," Lealman Fire Marshal Bob Christy said. "When the guys arrived on scene, they were already way behind."

A major problem, Christy said, was a lack of fire stops in the crawl space above the Nautilus building at Town Apartments North. With nothing structural to contain the flames, the fire quickly spread throughout the L-shaped building.

Helping propel the fire was the wind, which constantly changed direction.

When the first firefighters arrived, five minutes after receiving the alarm, flames were shooting 30 feet in the air from both wings. Black smoke poured from the sides. Temperatures reached an estimated 800 to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to cause the steel to warp.

"This thing was already out of control when they got here," Lealman fire Chief Rick Graham said last week. "They were playing catchup."

The fire began in Unit 311 in the corner of the building next to the elevator shaft. Arson is not suspected, and the investigation seems to be focusing on the gas stove and whether it was wired properly, Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman Greg Tita said.

"It looks like the stove just caught on fire," Tita said. "The position of the stove and the absence of a fire wall caused the fire to go so far so fast. If a fire wall had been there, the fire likely would have been contained to 311."

Investigators on Tuesday were to remove the stove for further study before turning the 54-unit building over to Allstate, which insured the premises.

Some residents who were burned out of their homes gathered in the clubhouse, picking through donated clothes, holding them up against each other to check for fit.

Other neighbors waited for an escort to their burned-out homes so they could direct firefighters to pick out papers and other precious items from the rubble.

As one elderly man passed on his way to his charred apartment, he asked, "Hey, you want to buy a condo?"

But for the most part, the mood was somber as a workman prepared to put up a chain-link fence to secure the area.

Firefighters talked of the need for large buildings to have sprinklers and fire walls that extend through the roof to help contain fires and minimize damage.

Neither of those structural elements was required when the Nautilus building was erected in 1966, though county records suggest the building had some fire stops extending through the attic or crawl space to the roof.

Jack Tipton, assistant director of the county Building Department, unearthed the file with plans for the complex. Although the Nautilus blueprints were missing, plans for two neighboring buildings were there.

Designated as "A" and "B" on the documents, the two-story buildings were about half the size of the three-story Nautilus. Tipton said the plans indicated the presence of fire stops.

Generally speaking, Tipton said, all buildings in a project are designed the same way. So it's logical to assume, he said, that the Nautilus building also had some fire stops.

If that's so, then why did the fire spread so quickly and why did firefighters say there was nothing to stop it?

Tipton, who saw the burned shell Monday, said the destruction of the third floor is so complete, it's impossible to tell if the fire stops were there. But even if they were, it's possible they had been "breached" or cut into at some point.

That's often done, he said, when people install cable television or other such lines. What people do not realize, he said, is that they're cutting through a fire wall. And one hole can make a difference by giving the fire a way into other sections of a building.

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Area Gets a Band-Aid.....Jurisdictions Debate Responsibility

Lealman to get 41 hydrants

A fire in a condo exposed the need for more hydrants in this Pinellas community.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 6, 2003


CLEARWATER - Residents of an unincorporated Pinellas community where a fire ravaged a condominium in June will get 41 new fire hydrants under a tentative agreement reached by St. Petersburg and the county.

Under the proposed agreement, Pinellas County would shoulder more of the cost of the new hydrants than it initially offered.

The county will pay about $100,000 for the city to install the hydrants on existing pipes in the Lealman area. St. Petersburg would agree to absorb the cost of overtime to make sure the job is done within 15 to 20 weeks, rather than the original estimate of 40 weeks. That will be about $17,000, Deputy Mayor Tish Elston said.

County Commissioner Ken Welch acknowledged Tuesday that the county, which earlier had offered to pay for the hydrants but not the labor, had blinked and swallowed a "bitter pill."

But St. Petersburg blinked, too, Welch said, by agreeing to absorb the overtime costs, estimated at $200 to $400 per hydrant.

"We don't want to continue to haggle for another year," Welch said. "At this point, our priority is public safety. ... We just want to get the hydrants installed."

The County Commission agreed to the deal in a workshop Tuesday. The St. Petersburg City Council is scheduled to discuss it Thursday.

Elston agreed that solving the problem was a priority.

"We committed in the very beginning that we would try to work out whatever we could," Elston said.

It is unclear, Elston said, when the hydrants will be installed. City staff members will begin working out the logistics this morning.

Still in dispute are another 118 hydrants the county says Lealman needs. The problem there is that the pipes and water mains are not of sufficient size to support the hydrants. The county and St. Petersburg, which owns the water system in Lealman, are arguing over which government should bear the cost of upgrading the pipes and mains.

Ray Neri, president of the Lealman Community Association, said he was glad to hear the area is getting some of the needed hydrants. But he worried about the precedent set by the county's agreeing to pay the labor for installation. Other cities that supply water to unincorporated residents could demand that the county pay for hydrants in those areas, even though they have supplied hydrants in the past, he said.

"I still think St. Petersburg is dead wrong," Neri said. "I think that it's just they have a different sense of right and wrong than most people. This is the best deal we can make of a bad situation."

Assistant County Administrator Gay Lancaster, who conducted the negotiations with St. Petersburg, agreed there is a danger of setting a precedent. But it is outweighed, she said, by the county's concern for public safety.

"This may have set a very unfortunate precedent, but I don't think the board was willing to wait it out anymore," Lancaster said. "Who's going to be the good guy here? I think the board just decided to be the good guy here."

The lack of hydrants in the Lealman area, which stretches between St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park from about Interstate 275 to Park Street, has long been considered a problem. But not much was done about it until a June 21 fire devastated the three-story, 54-unit Nautilus building at Town Apartments North. Firefighters were hampered by a lack of nearby hydrants and wound up getting some of their water to fight the blaze from a pond.

It caused an estimated $4.3-million in damage and left the building's mostly elderly residents homeless.

County officials said it would take 160 hydrants to bring the Lealman area up to standard. They looked to St. Petersburg to supply those hydrants because that city provides water to the Lealman area at a 25 percent surcharge. That surcharge, said the county, should be earmarked for improvements to the water system, including hydrants.

St. Petersburg records do not break out Lealman records from other unincorporated areas in its water district. But records show that in the 2001 calendar year, St. Petersburg brought in about $766,000 from the 25 percent surcharge in all the unincorporated areas it serves. In 2002, that amount climbed to about $855,000. From January to June this year, the city earned about $465,000 from the surcharge.

Mayor Rick Baker disagreed that the city was responsible for upgrades and hydrants, despite the surcharge. It was the county's duty to supply hydrants to the system, he said.

County officials decided early on in the dispute to pay for the 41 hydrants. But they argued that the city should pay the labor costs because it is illegal for the county to alter water pipes that St. Petersburg owns.

That changed Tuesday after Baker faxed a letter to the county offering to absorb the overtime costs. With those waived, the county would have to pay $1,890 for each hydrant and its installation as well as a 25 percent surcharge, Baker said. That brought the total cost to the county to $96,862.50.

Baker said in the letter he would have liked to waive the surcharge but "our legal staff has indicated that is not possible."

- Times staff writer Michael Sandler contributed to this report.

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St. Petersburg Times

Owners wait for officials to solve hydrant problem
Neither St. Petersburg nor county leaders want to foot the bill for more fire hydrants. Residents just want protection.
By ANNE LINDBERG and MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN
Published September 17, 2003

LEALMAN - Kelley and Bob Letourneau had returned to their Treasure Island home after a dinner date and checked their answering machine. Even now, more than nine years later, they remember the message to the word:

"Dude, your house has burned to the ground and this is no joke."

"We were like, what?" Bob Letourneau said. "It was like 20 minutes and it was toasted."

He and his wife rushed to Lealman, but the fire trucks were already gone. What remained was a smoldering heap.

Their property, like much of the housing in the unincorporated area, was made of wood. The speed of the fire was a foregone conclusion, but worse for the Letourneaus, the nearest hydrant was down the street and around the corner.

"They didn't have enough hose to reach the hydrant," Kelley Letourneau said.

Firefighters had water in their truck, but it wasn't enough.

"We heard they pumped the truck dry, but, you know," Bob Letourneau said, shrugging.

Nobody was hurt, but the house was a total loss. No one wanted the lot. The Letourneaus sold their home on the beach and rebuilt on the Lealman property, where they now live.

The Letourneaus have followed news reports that Lealman would get 44 new hydrants, but none of those hydrants will be near their home. They are not alone.

In Lealman, South Pasadena, Gandy, Bay Pines, unincorporated areas that receive their water from the city of St. Petersburg, county officials say fire hydrants are dangerously scarce.

Therein lies the germ of a conflict: The county says St. Petersburg should pay for the hydrants because it supplies water to those areas at a premium - 25 percent more than to city residents. St. Petersburg says the county should provide the hydrants because the areas are unincorporated.

"That's the battle that the two governments have to get over," said Dan Graves, chief of Seminole Fire Rescue, which the county pays to provide fire service to the Bay Pines area. There, more than 500 homes rely on three hydrants. "Nobody wants to pay for it."

Hydrants are plentiful in unincorporated areas north and northwest of the Bay Pines neighborhood. Graves said the county provides water to those areas and has been upgrading the pipes and installing more hydrants there for the past decade.

"They're really doing the right thing," he said.

The problem area is bordered by 100th Way to the west, 48th Avenue to the south, 97th Way to the east and the Pinellas Trail to the north.

Graves said the area has lacked hydrants for decades. "It's off the radar screen." he said.

So was the Lealman area, until last June when a fire destroyed a 54-unit, three-story condo at Town Apartments North. Firefighters responded quickly but lost time trying to connect to distant hydrants.

Graves said he's been talking with county officials that oversee fire protection in Pinellas and asking them to remedy the situation in Bay Pines.

"We're working on that," said Dwaine Booth, deputy director of Pinellas County's EMS and fire services administration. "We're trying to come up with a way of funding those."

The only place to put additional hydrants is along 98th Way, where an 8-inch main runs under the street, and on a couple of side streets.

Fortunately, Graves said, the neighborhood is not a high hazard area. Most of the homes are cement block houses and have sufficient space between them, he said.

Graves wants more hydrants but said his department can handle the current situation. If a fire occurs there, a truck loaded with water is dispatched to the scene. A second unit drives to the nearest hydrant and hooks up a hose. Then firefighters from a third truck attach a second hose to the first one.

It's not the ideal way to put out a fire, when every minute counts, Graves said.

"It's certainly not the best situation for the residents, but it's not so critical that I'm concerned that residents are going to die tonight," he said.

County officials have agreed to pay to have 44 hydrants installed in the Lealman area. None of those are near the Letourneaus and that number is far short of the 160 hydrants that county officials say the area needs.

The county says St. Petersburg is responsible for the other 116, which will require expensive upgrades to the water system.

But negotiations over those 116 are at a standstill. Assistant County Administrator Gay Lancaster said Monday that officials are waiting for the 44 to be installed before discussing the remainder.

That could be several weeks. Ten had been installed as of Friday, Booth said. The county plans to test those this week to make sure they're working.

None of it is reassuring to Kelley Letourneau, who said she worries each time she goes out. "We're concerned about our home," she said.