A Midtown manager thought the candle was out. Then he missed the trash when he tossed it.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published June 21, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Employees and a customer of the Georgia Meat Market in Midtown ran for cover Sunday after a burning incense candle was accidentally tossed into a fireworks display.
Four employees and one customer at the market scrambled as the 4-foot-high display lit up about 9 a.m. Sunday, said St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Lt. Rick Feinberg.
When firefighters entered the building on 12th Avenue S near Wildwood Park minutes later, Feinberg said, the store was engulfed in flames - and fireworks.
"Fireworks were shooting from one end of the building to the other," Feinberg said.
An employee was unable to smother the fireworks with an extinguisher. The store's interior was heavily damaged, Feinberg said, and store owners said they lost close to $45,000 in inventory. A pair of vacant second-floor apartments received smoke damage as a result of the fire.
No one involved was injured.
According to fire investigators, the pyrotechnics erupted when the store manager discarded an incense candle he thought had burned out. But when the manager flipped the candle toward a trash can, he missed, Feinberg said. He hit the Fourth of July fireworks display instead.
After three minutes, the fireworks started igniting, Feinberg said.
Last year, Pinellas County commissioners toughened the county's fireworks law to prohibit fireworks that explode and launch into the air.
Firefighters Sunday found bottle rockets and other flying fireworks at the store. They will hand them over to the St. Petersburg Police Department, Feinberg said.
