Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
AMBER MOBLEYOfficials at the apartment complex say fire walls helped contain the blaze to one unit.
TAMPA - A 48-year-old man died Thursday in an early morning apartment fire that rousted residents from their beds and sent them fleeing for safety.
Hayden Clarke died from apparent smoke inhalation after being airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, according to a Hillsborough County sheriff's report.
Screams, alarms and fire engine sirens replaced the predawn quiet about 5:30 a.m. at Parker's Landing Apartment Homes, witnesses said.
The fire was contained to Clarke's second-floor apartment, 5330 Baywater Drive in building 52, not spreading to the building's other 15 units.
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue controlled the blaze within 15 minutes, according to fire department reports. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
"This whole partial area was just in absolute flames," said resident Kari O'Keefe, pointing to the blackened and gutted two bedroom apartment.
O'Keefe had just arrived home from work when she saw "guys running out with all their personal belongings, and they looked pretty freaked out."
While others ran from the burning unit, Clarke lay on the sidewalk, surrounded by firefighters who were trying to resuscitate him, said Melissa Erling, a first-floor resident in building 52. Erling said she was awaken by alarms and smoke snaking through the air vents.
Sharo Dillard lived directly underneath the burning apartment, her door no more than a few feet from the entryway of the apartment fire.
Dillard wasn't home when the fire started, but her 82-year-old mother was.
When Dillard arrived about 7 a.m., her mother was sitting outside with her cat.
"She said the fire was so intense that she thought her bathrobe was catching fire," Dillard said of her mother, who is visiting.
Although the fire did not spread to other units in the building, apartments in the vicinity were slightly damaged. Parker's Landing representative Mendi Soto credits the units' fire walls for containing the fire to one apartment.
"There are fire walls, and it's a concrete structure," Soto said. "That makes a huge difference."
Damage estimates are forthcoming, Soto said.
Water, mixed with soot, stained Dillard's ceiling and puddled on the floor in her apartment. Besides the heavy smell of smoke, her belongings were not damaged.
Dillard and boyfriend, John DeLucca, gathered clothes, food, a bouquet of a dozen pink roses and other items from her apartment late Thursday morning.
She'll stay with DeLucca for now, and her mother is with family.
"I don't know what to do ... to think," Dillard said.