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Fire station planned in Paul's Drive area

BRANDON - A lot can happen in five minutes, Assistant Fire Chief Wade DeHate told a gathering of Brandon residents last week.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published February 10, 2006

In five minutes, a heart attack victim's brain starts to die. In five minutes, a fire can become hot enough for a "flashover," when flames break out over an entire room.

So firefighters try to respond to calls within those crucial five minutes.

Right now, DeHate said, in the area near the Brandon post office on Oakfield Drive, firefighters meet that goal on only 20 percent of calls.

Why?

There aren't any stations nearby. And there are so many people in that part of Brandon that the call volume is high.

Basically, DeHate said, development has outstripped Hillsborough County Fire Rescue's resources.

"We're trying to catch up," he said after Thursday's meeting. "We're behind."

That's why the department is planning to build a new, three-bay fire station off Paul's Drive.

The station will cost about $1.5-million, DeHate said, and would open in 2007 at the earliest. It's planned as part of a proposed county services center, but depending on how each project fares, it might open before the center does.

DeHate asked the group of eight residents to support the project, which is part of the department's capital improvement schedule that calls for two new stations a year.

"We think it's a good location," he said. "It would really make us able to solve the response-time challenge."

With community support, he said, the project would move forward more quickly.

Most seemed in favor of the fire station - including Kathy Eldridge, 57, who lives across from the proposed site.

But she still had a question for DeHate.

"What is going to happen at two in the morning?" she asked. "Am I going to hear sirens?"

"Two in the morning, they're not going to blare sirens," DeHate assured her. "If they do, tell me, and I'll make them stop."

Sheriff's deputies spent the week searching for the owner of a Thonotosassa home after uncovering what they said was a dogfighting ring and a marijuana farm.

A warrant was issued for John Dudley Henderson, who property records show owns the house at 7713 Muddy Water Trail, on charges of cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and of being a felon in possession of a firearm, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said Tuesday.

Acting on a tip, deputies searched the home Feb. 1. They were expecting to find animals housed in cruel conditions, Carter said.

They did find eight pit bullterriers and six puppies, some with cuts and bruises, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies said they think the dogs were being trained as fighting dogs.

But deputies also said they found a hydroponic marijuana farm inside the apartment. They confiscated 7 pounds of cut and drying marijuana.

Along with the dogs, Animal Services also took a cat and two cows into custody.

Deputies arrested two young men they say are behind a wave of destructive - but mostly not lucrative - crimes in Brandon.

Joshua David Connor, 18, of 302 Kings Court, who also goes by the name "Master Josh," was arrested Jan. 26 on 52 charges, including grand theft of a fire extinguisher and criminal mischief to a place of worship.

William Joseph Adkins, 20, of 701 Pearl St., was arrested on Feb. 2 on 30 similar charges.

Deputies say the pair broke into businesses and cars around Knights Avenue for three months, between November and January. But they say the pair only stole money once - at Aquarium Creations on State Road 60, where they allegedly stole $1,200 in cash. That break-in took place next to the Brandon office of the St. Petersburg Times, which also was damaged.

On other occasions, the Sheriff's Office said, the two broke in only to "ransack" businesses and cars, or stole odd items - like a pair of surgical glasses taken from a dentist's office. "Not things you would normally think of taking," Carter said.

On the weekend of Dec. 16, the two allegedly went to the Hillsborough County School District office at 1101 Victoria St. and broke into 14 county buses, smashing windows and rear view mirrors, and stealing several fire extinguishers.

On Jan. 25, they are alleged to have smashed a window at First United Church on Knights Avenue.

Both remain in the Falkenburg Road Jail, where they are being held until they can post bail.

- Signal 14, code for "information," is an occasional column about policing east Hillsborough. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 9, 2006, 09:10:11]