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In minutes, St. Petersburg police officer loses home

No one was home when fire quickly destroyed the two-story, four-bedroomhouse in New Port Richey.

By Mallory Simon
Published July 3, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - St. Petersburg police Officer Joe Pratt said he had only left his house for 30 minutes. He went to McDonald's around 2:30 Thursday morning for a bite, but the drive-through was closed. So he went to 7-Eleven instead.

Shortly before 3 a.m. he turned onto Bellingham Court and approached his home. That's when he said he saw 30-foot flames shooting out of his house.

In only 30 minutes, his house had been destroyed.

"The entire thing was engulfed," Pratt said. "Flames were coming out of the top, through the front and through the windows."

Pratt said his wife and his 11-year-old son were out of town and nobody else was home when the fire started.

Fire investigator Donald Campbell said it took 25 firefighters an hour and 25 minutes to get the fire under control.

Later Thursday morning, Pratt stood outside his home as fire investigators with Pasco County Fire Rescue and state fire marshals dug through the debris.

The four-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-story house was now charred and gutted. All that remained of the top floor where three bedrooms once stood was the frame of a wall, blackened and covered with ash.

The roof had collapsed, the back of the home was almost gone and all of the windows were blown out.

Campbell estimated the damage at nearly $400,000.

"Everything and anything of value was inside that house," Pratt said.

Alongside the house stood a storage shed that held several pieces of furniture.

Pratt said work on an addition to the house was supposed to begin within a week.

Fire investigators were working with the state fire marshals and a search dog to determine the location and cause of the fire.

[Last modified July 2, 2006, 21:05:53]