AVON PARK — The curled, blackened and melted remains of vertical blinds was all that was visible from the cracked front windows of the New Life Deliverance Praise and Worship Ministries, located at 25 S. Verona Ave., that burned Friday morning. State Fire Marshal investigators and ATF agents combed over the ruins of the church, as they determined the fire had been deliberately set. The fire probably would have destroyed the building had it not been for Avon Park Fire Department firefighters returning from a medical call at 2:30 a.m. Friday, according to Chief Terry Feickert. ...more

December 29, 2007

Eight-year-old Gerardo Perez doesn't hesitate when asked what he and his family lost in a Nov. 29 fire that gutted their apartment. ...more

December 18, 2007

TAMPA - This morning, Tampa firefighters from Fire Station No. 12 along with some teachers at Egypt Lake Elementary School spread some holiday cheer to a family devastated by a recent apartment fire. ...more

December 17, 2007

Developers want to transform a 16-acre wooded parcel at State Road 60 and Dover Road into a shopping center with a grocery store. ...more

December 15, 2007

Thickets of cables and wires stretch from the ceiling. The musk of wet paint wafts through the building. Workers scurry, making the final construction touches on the new county government service center on Pauls Drive. ...more

December 5, 2007

SEBRING — "Welcome to Our Salon," the sign states on the front door of a Lemon Avenue beauty shop as water flowed out the open entranceway Friday morning. ...more

November 30, 2007

From start to finish, fire commissioner Robert Giammarco barked about the board's tendency - in his view - to waste taxpayer money, but one colleague barked back, accusing him of being misguidedly tightfisted. ...more

November 30, 2007

International donors pledged hundreds of millions of dollars Wednesday to rebuild Bangladesh's cyclone-ravaged coast, but help wasn't coming fast enough for thousands of homeless survivors who fought over meager rice handouts. ...more

November 22, 2007