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House fire witness: 'It was torture'
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- As Tanya Scott drove down the street Thursday morning she saw black smoke rising from a small house on Martin Luther King Boulevard. She pulled into the driveway, and a man holding two infants ran toward her. He pushed the children into Scott's arms. "Keep the babies back!" he yelled, then ran toward the house. He and three others desperately tried to get inside the burning building to save a man trapped in a back bedroom. But the fierce flames and the thick smoke forced them to retreat. "The fire was just like hell," said Eldred Baker, one of the men who tried to get inside. "It kept coming and coming." Arthur Lee Robinson, the 55-year-old man who owned the home, died in the fire. He could not escape out a nearby window because of burglar bars, witnesses said. The cause of the fire was not known Thursday, but Assistant Fire Marshal Todd Spear said it "doesn't look suspicious." Firefighters received the call at 9:12 a.m., and were at the home at 1016 Martin Luther King Blvd. six minutes later. The home had a smoke detector, but it did not appear to be working, Spear said. It is unclear how many people were inside the home at the time of the fire, but witnesses said at least two adults and the two babies emerged from the building. The home is near 10th Street, near a church, and not far from Interstate 275. "The closer I got, I thought it was our church," said LaVonne Barnaby of Lakeland, who was driving to the church when she saw the flames and smoke. Five fire engines and 15 firefighters attacked the flames. No one else was injured. About an hour after the fire, Robinson's family and friends stood near the home and watched as firefighters sprayed water on the porch. The exterior of the home wasn't damaged much; yet the smoke had blackened the windows. "I really feel sorry for this family," said Baker, whose clothes were covered in ash. "It was torture."
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