Residents were evacuated from more than a dozen homes at the Imperial Palms complex in the city.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published May 4, 2004
[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
Fire gutted this second-floor apartment Monday at the Imperial Palms complex on Imperial Palms Drive in Largo, and damage was estimated at about $80,000. Another unit was rendered uninhabitable because of smoke damage. No one was injured in the blaze.
LARGO - Two people were displaced from their apartments Monday after an early morning fire.
A resident of Imperial Palms apartments called 911 about 3:15 a.m. Monday to report that a sofa in her living room was on fire, said Deputy Chief Jeff Bullock of the Largo Fire Department.
The woman got out of her unit at 4709 Imperial Palms Drive safely.
Firefighters pulled up to the scene five minutes later and saw smoke pouring from the apartment. Flames poked out of a back window and curled up toward the roof, Bullock said.
Firefighters evacuated 16 other apartments and made their way into the unit that was on fire. They extinguished the blaze within 10 minutes, preventing it from spreading into the roof or to other units, Bullock said.
However, another unit was deemed uninhabitable because of smoke damage. The unit that caught fire was gutted and destroyed. Damage was estimated at about $80,000, Bullock said.
A cause of the fire had not been determined by Monday afternoon, but Bullock said there were no indications it was suspicious.
Bullock said a single woman occupied the apartment that caught fire. A single resident also occupied the other damaged unit. The American Red Cross was summoned to help those people, but Bullock wasn't sure where they were staying Monday night.
Bullock could not confirm the names of the displaced residents. A phone message left with the apartment complex was not returned.
Bullock said fire crews ventilated about a dozen units that had some smoke seep into them.
firefighters helped fight the blaze.[Last modified May 3, 2004, 21:53:12]
