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Smoking Led To Blaze In Mobile Home

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By LISA A. DAVIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 18, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The fire that destroyed a couple's home, sent the husband to a Tampa hospital and killed the family dog Monday was caused by someone smoking in bed, Pasco County Fire Marshal Larry Whitten said.

Michelle and Richard Schmidt hadn't had electricity in their single-wide mobile home at 5135 Southtowne Loop since November and had been using candles to see at night, but that wasn't what sparked the blaze, Whitten said Thursday.

It was clear, he said, the candles were not the cause because the table they were on wasn't as badly burned as it would have been.

The one-alarm blaze started about 7 a.m. Monday and quickly became an inferno, burning several palm trees surrounding the property at the corner of Southtowne Loop and Main Street, just west of U.S. 19. A home just feet away on the other side of a fence was unscathed.

Michelle Schmidt, 48, awoke that morning from the intense heat and tried to wake her husband as the pair slept on the sofa bed in the living room, she said. She was able to drag her husband outside, but Richard, 46, suffered from first- and second-degree burns on 10 percent to 20 percent of his body and was flown to Tampa General Hospital.

He was out of the hospital Thursday, but it wasn't clear when he was discharged.

The couple's dog, Hanna, was found dead inside the home and was carried out by firefighters on a makeshift gurney. The firefighters buried the pet in a shallow grave next to the burned-out mobile home while other firefighters still hosed hot spots.

Michelle Schmidt wasn't injured.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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