Owners wait for officials to solve hydrant problem
Neither St. Petersburg nor county leaders want to foot the bill for more fire hydrants. Residents just want protection.
By ANNE LINDBERG and MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN
Published September 17, 2003
LEALMAN - Kelley and Bob Letourneau had returned to their Treasure Island home after a dinner date and checked their answering machine. Even now, more than nine years later, they remember the message to the word:
"Dude, your house has burned to the ground and this is no joke."
"We were like, what?" Bob Letourneau said. "It was like 20 minutes and it was toasted."
He and his wife rushed to Lealman, but the fire trucks were already gone. What remained was a smoldering heap.
Their property, like much of the housing in the unincorporated area, was made of wood. The speed of the fire was a foregone conclusion, but worse for the Letourneaus, the nearest hydrant was down the street and around the corner.
"They didn't have enough hose to reach the hydrant," Kelley Letourneau said.
Firefighters had water in their truck, but it wasn't enough.
"We heard they pumped the truck dry, but, you know," Bob Letourneau said, shrugging.
Nobody was hurt, but the house was a total loss. No one wanted the lot. The Letourneaus sold their home on the beach and rebuilt on the Lealman property, where they now live.
The Letourneaus have followed news reports that Lealman would get 44 new hydrants, but none of those hydrants will be near their home. They are not alone.
In Lealman, South Pasadena, Gandy, Bay Pines, unincorporated areas that receive their water from the city of St. Petersburg, county officials say fire hydrants are dangerously scarce.
Therein lies the germ of a conflict: The county says St. Petersburg should pay for the hydrants because it supplies water to those areas at a premium - 25 percent more than to city residents. St. Petersburg says the county should provide the hydrants because the areas are unincorporated.
"That's the battle that the two governments have to get over," said Dan Graves, chief of Seminole Fire Rescue, which the county pays to provide fire service to the Bay Pines area. There, more than 500 homes rely on three hydrants. "Nobody wants to pay for it."
Hydrants are plentiful in unincorporated areas north and northwest of the Bay Pines neighborhood. Graves said the county provides water to those areas and has been upgrading the pipes and installing more hydrants there for the past decade.
"They're really doing the right thing," he said.
The problem area is bordered by 100th Way to the west, 48th Avenue to the south, 97th Way to the east and the Pinellas Trail to the north.
Graves said the area has lacked hydrants for decades. "It's off the radar screen." he said.
So was the Lealman area, until last June when a fire destroyed a 54-unit, three-story condo at Town Apartments North. Firefighters responded quickly but lost time trying to connect to distant hydrants.
Graves said he's been talking with county officials that oversee fire protection in Pinellas and asking them to remedy the situation in Bay Pines.
"We're working on that," said Dwaine Booth, deputy director of Pinellas County's EMS and fire services administration. "We're trying to come up with a way of funding those."
The only place to put additional hydrants is along 98th Way, where an 8-inch main runs under the street, and on a couple of side streets.
Fortunately, Graves said, the neighborhood is not a high hazard area. Most of the homes are cement block houses and have sufficient space between them, he said.
Graves wants more hydrants but said his department can handle the current situation. If a fire occurs there, a truck loaded with water is dispatched to the scene. A second unit drives to the nearest hydrant and hooks up a hose. Then firefighters from a third truck attach a second hose to the first one.
It's not the ideal way to put out a fire, when every minute counts, Graves said.
"It's certainly not the best situation for the residents, but it's not so critical that I'm concerned that residents are going to die tonight," he said.
County officials have agreed to pay to have 44 hydrants installed in the Lealman area. None of those are near the Letourneaus and that number is far short of the 160 hydrants that county officials say the area needs.
The county says St. Petersburg is responsible for the other 116, which will require expensive upgrades to the water system.
But negotiations over those 116 are at a standstill. Assistant County Administrator Gay Lancaster said Monday that officials are waiting for the 44 to be installed before discussing the remainder.
That could be several weeks. Ten had been installed as of Friday, Booth said. The county plans to test those this week to make sure they're working.
None of it is reassuring to Kelley Letourneau, who said she worries each time she goes out. "We're concerned about our home," she said.
