TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Investigators say arson not cause of Pinellas apartment fire

Staff photo by ERIC HAUSMANN

More than five of the 18 units in the building were destroyed at Town Apartments, a complex for residents 55 and older.

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2009

Updated: 10/23/2009 03:46 pm

LEALMAN - A fire broke out this morning on the second floor of a building that houses residents 55 and older, prompting authorities to evacuate about 20 people, fire officials said.

No residents in the building were injured, said Capt. K. Larry Thompson of Lealman Fire District.

Some of the 20 residents were congregating this morning at a clubhouse at Town Apartments North, 1900 61st Ave. N., as the American Red Cross worked with them to find shelter, Thompson said.

Of the 19 units in the building, residents living in seven are living elsewhere, Thompson said. Residents of eight units have been accounted for and the Red Cross is working to find them accommodations.

Residents of the remaining four units have not been accounted for, but could be staying with friends, Thompson said.

The building is one of 31 at Town Apartments North, a 763-unit condominium complex that experienced a similar blaze in 2003 that destroyed a 54-unit building. In that blaze, there was not enough available water, but since then a handful of fire hydrants have been installed at Town Apartments North, and the availability of water was not an issue today, Thompson said.

The cause of this morning's blaze, which started in a two-story building at 5855 18th St. N. known as the Florian, is unknown, but investigators on Friday afternoon said it did not appear to be intentionally set. More than five of the units in the building are destroyed. The blaze was brought under control by 8 a.m., Thompson said.

The fire started in Apartment 18 on the second floor of the complex, in the kitchen area, investigators said. The apartment was unoccupied as the owner lives in Canada.

Although no residents inside the building required medical treatment, paramedics were called to treat a woman in an adjacent building for a medical condition unrelated to the fire, Thompson said.

Firefighters from several agencies responded to the three-alarm fire at 5:30 a.m. today. They arrived to find flames shooting through the roof of the building. The upstairs apartments share a common attic, and the fire swept through there because there were no firewalls, Thompson said.

"Once it blows through the roof it gets through the breaks pretty quickly," Lealman fire Chief Richard Graham said.

The fire caused the rear portion of the building to collapse, Thompson said.

Halil Mekic, a 65-year-old refugee from the war in Bosnia, said he lived in the apartment under Apt. 18. He said his wife alerted him to the smell of smoke, so Mekic went outside and then upstairs while she called 911.

In broken English, he said he looked into the upstairs condominium and thought it looked as if the kitchen oven had caught fire. He said he then flicked on an outside alarm, and proceeded to knock on doors in the building, to awaken his neighbors. Then he and his wife waited outside for firefighters to arrive.

"After, it's total fire," said Mekic, who was once a professional musician in Europe but who now works as a cleaner for the Pinellas County school district.

Among Mekic's possessions were three computers he said were part of a makeshift studio, plus a Fender guitar and keyboards. But he's too old, and too broke, to consider replacing them, he said.

In addition to him and his wife, there are four other families in the Florian who hail from the former Yugoslavia.

Richard Meckley, a 78-year-old retired driver, said he lived in Apt. 17, the apartment next to Apt. 18.

"My cat's probably dead," he said. "I left everything, I didn't take anything out – my medications, my wallet."

Meckley said he was awakened by voices, looked out the window and saw "all this smoke rolling by."

Meckley said a man in his 80s lives in the apartment where the fire started, but the man is in Canada. The man had hip surgery last year and hasn't returned to the complex, Meckley said.

Unlike Meckley, Billie Brayton was able to save her cat, Sammy. Brayton was keeping the feline in the car as firefighters continued to work.

Brayton, 60, who lives in the building with her 80-year-old mother, Mildred Arnold, said she was awakened by alarms going off inside and outside the building.

"I woke my mother up – because nothing wakes my mother up – and got the heck out of the building," she said. "It just went crazy."

Thompson said firefighters were preparing to go into the condominiums in that half of the building that was not heavily damaged by fire. That half is stable, so firefighters don't have to worry about the building collapsing around them while they are inside.

While inside, pairs of firefighters assigned to each condominium will go through a unit with a list given them by residents of items the residents want retrieved. Each team of firefighters will have two plastic containers for each condominium, and are instructed to not gather up possessions that do not fit into those two containers.

In 2003, a fire at the complex destroyed a 54-unit condominium building, and firefighters complained that there were not enough hydrants in the area. Since then, Pinellas County spent $2 million to place new hydrants in Lealman, firefighters said.

In that fire, eight people were injured, including three firefighters who were treated for heat exhaustion and five residents who were either overcome by smoke or whose chronic health conditions were exacerbated by smoke or stress.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

Share this:

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT