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2 Condos Destroyed In 2nd Blaze At Complex

CHRIS URSO / Tampa Tribune

Hillsborough Fire Rescue workers responded twice to the Stone Creek Pointe condominium complex. First, they extinguished a truck fire. The second time, the building was on fire. More Photos

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 8, 2007

Updated: 10/08/2007 10:20 pm

Watch Video: News Channel 8 Report | http://tbo.com/video/xml/MGBDSORXI7F.html' target='_top'>Fire Footage By Resident

TAMPA - Hillsborough County firefighters doused a truck fire at the Stone Creek Pointe condominium project early Monday and left. They had to return an hour later, though, to fight a much larger blaze, one that destroyed two condos, damaged four others and possibly was sparked by the original fire.

Firefighters said they did everything possible to make sure no embers from the truck fire had settled on the roof or balconies of the complex.

They walked through the units and even climbed into the attic, poking around and using new thermal imagers that can detect temperature variances of less than half of a degree, fire rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley said. The equipment is less than two months old, he said.

"They didn't see any hot spots," he said. "They crawled into the attic, looking for any embers and found nothing."

Arson investigators were busy Monday trying to determine the cause of the condominium fire, he said.

"There's nothing definite on anything yet," Yeakley said Monday afternoon. "We're still looking at the possibility that one fire caused the other. It probably will be a few days before we come up with definite cause."

The blaze caused more than $200,000 in damage, he said.

David Hearne, in shorts and a T-shirt, and his wife, Lisa, still in her white bathrobe, stood outside at dawn watching firefighters mop up. Their apartment had been damaged.

They recounted how a frantic knocking came at the door about 3 a.m. A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy shouted to get out of the building.

The couple rose and ran outside to find a Ford pickup engulfed in flames. They watched as county firefighters put the fire out and as firefighters inspected their building of eight condominiums. The complex is just off Fletcher Avenue and west of 52nd Street.

Finding nothing, firefighters allowed residents to return to their homes.

About an hour later, the knocking at their door began again, David Hearne said.

Neighbors yelled for everyone to get out.

He and his wife ran outside to see flames shooting from beneath a roof and over a balcony in an adjacent unit.

"It got real bad, real quick," Hearne said.

"We all came out and started moving our cars," Lisa Hearne said, glancing across the parking lot strewn with hoses being used by exhausted firefighters.

Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion.

It was unclear when the couple could get back into the apartment. They said they have local relatives where they can stay.

The couple said they have lived in the complex, home mostly to University of South Florida students, for about a year and a half.

Yeakley said the department sent 12 units and about 30 firefighters and paramedics to the 3 a.m. two-alarm blaze.

No residents were injured, Yeakley said. Residents of destroyed or damaged units were offered other places to stay at the condominiums, he said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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