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Man, 37. accused of robbing Tampa Wendy's

TAMPA - A man with a pistol robbed a Wendy's, 1507 E. Fowler Ave., Friday evening, stealing an undisclosed amount of cash and fleeing on foot, according to Tampa police.

Police arrested 37-year-old Herman H. Callender a few blocks away. Witnesses identified him as the armed robber, and police say he later confessed to the crime.

Callender is being charged with robbery, and is being held at the Orient Road Jail.

TAMPA - A Riverview man was killed early Saturday morning in a two-vehicle collision on Interstate 75 near the Gibsonton Drive exit, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Jarrod M. Bourget, 30, died when his 1994 Lincoln rear-ended a dump truck, Highway Patrol officials said. Both vehicles were southbound on the bridge of Riverview Drive.

The impact caused both vehicles to rotate, and the dump truck overturned after hitting a concrete barrier.

The driver of the dump truck, Jamir G. Avelar, 44, also of Riverview, was taken to Brandon General Medical Center with minor injuries, officials said.

Neither man was wearing a seat belt according to the patrol.

TAMPA - Showgirls Men's Club was smokin' early Saturday morning, but it had nothing to do with the business's scantly-clad exotic dancers' eye-popping performances.

At about 6:30 a.m., nearly two hours after the adult business closed, a passer-by reported heavy smoke coming from the building at U.S. Highway 92 and County Line Road, near Plant City, according to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

Five engine companies, three from Hillsborough County and two from Plant City Fire Rescue, responded to the blaze, along with two water tankers, putting about 20 firefighters on the scene.

Firefighters doused the fire, which had broken out in the rear hallway. No one was injured but the blaze and smoke caused more than $100,000 damage, according to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman Bill Watson.

"Firefighters had to open up the front windows and front door to ventilate," Watson said. "They had to destroy them because they were deadbolted."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but electrical problems are suspected, officials said.

CLEARWATER - An electrician was injured Saturday when a fire started on the sixth floor of Morton Plant Hospital, officials said.

Workers were feeding wire to a transformer and struck a live wire about 10 a.m., causing a flash fire, said Clearwater fire bureau Chief Steve Strong. The fire was contained to an electrical room and the sixth floor is unoccupied, Strong said.

The electrician was admitted to the hospital.