Hurricane Idalia resulted in more than water and wind damage to one Holmes Beach property.
A duplex at 210 71st St. suffered extensive fire damage the night of Aug. 29 after a power line downed by a storm band from Hurricane Idalia led to a structure fire, according to a West Manatee Fire Rescue report.
The property is owned by the Don F Trust and Dorothy C Trust and their respective trustees, Holmes Beach residents Don and Dorothy Pon.
WMFR units were on their way to the area around 10:03 p.m. in response to reports of downed power lines when they received word that one of the lines caught a backyard shed on fire.
Firefighters arrived around 10:08 p.m. to find a shed burning behind 210 71st. St., as well as a fence connecting the shed to a main building.
However, the responding crews had to wait for the active powerline to be deenergized before they could begin combatting the spreading fire.
WMFR command contacted Florida Power & Light for assistance but FPL’s 30-minute response time was deemed to be too long to wait and the local grid was deenergized within two minutes, allowing firefighting efforts to begin.
By the time crews could take action, the fire had spread to the back of one unit of the duplex.
WMFR crews extinguished the fire with hoses and pulled parts of the ceiling to check for any spread of the fire.
They cleared the property around midnight, but the home, assessed at $417,697, was left with extensive damage.
The arcing powerline also scorched trees and melted a neighbor’s vinyl fence.
There were no occupants within the burning unit but occupants in the attached unit were displaced due to smoke damage and loss of power.
Nobody was injured, according to WMFR fire marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski.
“In terms of a structure fire, it was relatively textbook,” Kwiatkowski said. “If you’re going to have a structure fire, it’s kind of the best-case scenario.”
The fire also threatened a backyard neighbor, Josh Foster, at 209 72nd St. Foster co-owns The Porch in Anna Maria with his wife.
He told The Islander Aug. 31 that he saw the fire through a window while he was in bed and called 911.
He said by the time firefighters began combatting the blaze, it had spread to his backyard fence due to intense winds from the storm.
Holmes Beach police knocked on his door and had Foster and his wife escorted from the property due to spreading fire but it never went beyond their fence.
“Luckily, we only lost the back fence,” Foster said. “Maybe a palm tree or two was charred but that’s all right.”
Foster said the fire came as a surprise addition to the storm, which was passing through the Gulf of Mexico, sending out bands of storms, but he was relieved it was resolved without injuries.
“It was a pretty crazy experience,” he added.
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