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Apartment fire drives family from home
By LEON M. TUCKER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- A woman and her three small children were forced from their two-bedroom apartment Sunday after a fire in the attic. No one was injured. Shanekia Mickel said she was napping just after noon inside her Edgewater apartment at 3145 Pinellas Point Drive when she was awakened by a knock at her door. It was a passerby telling her smoke was seeping from the vents outside her apartment. After the warning, Mickel gathered her children and went outside. "That's when it started smoking real bad," the 21-year-old said. "It's a good thing we got out, because the bed in the room where the kids were playing was burned." St. Petersburg Fire Department officials said the fire appeared to have been caused by an electrical short in a junction box adjacent to the unit's air handler. While the fire caused approximately $30,000 in damage, many of Mickel's personal belongings -- including the Christmas tree -- were not damaged. "She's real lucky," said Lt. Rick Feinberg. "For one, someone found her, and that it happened this time of day." "If this had happened at three or four in the morning it could have been a different story," he added. Mickel said apartment managers will let her move into a vacant unit today. Disaster volunteers from the American Red Cross made more immediate arrangements for Mickel and her children, Niyana King, 3, Michael King III, 1, and Shiyana King, 3 weeks old. In addition to putting them up in a hotel Sunday night, the Red Cross provided clothing and a week's worth of food. -- Leon M. Tucker can be reached at (727) 445-4167 or tucker@sptimes.com .
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
