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Blaze damages duplex

A couple and a 4-year-old relative escape unharmed after noticing the smoke.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published April 9, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Janie Jones' Easter nap was interrupted by smoke spewing from underneath her bed.

She was able to escape from the small brown house with her boyfriend and 4-year-old niece, who was visiting her for the holiday, officials said.

"Mad flames were coming through the top of the house," said Shannon Jerger, 27, who lives around the corner and came around the back of the burning house to help Jones, 52. "I could feel the heat on my face. That's how big the fire was."

The heat was so intense it warped the vinyl siding on the house next door.

The fire at 5355 Fifth Ave. N broke out about 1:30 p.m. It took first responders about four minutes to arrive, said Lt. Rick Feinberg of St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue.

The house, which is a rented duplex, was badly damaged, with most of the damage concentrated in the back, where Jones lived. A center lanai area was charred, gutted and still smoldering an hour after the fire began. Burnt and soaked beams littered the ground.

But no one was hurt.

"Praise the Lord. Thank you Jesus," homeowner Tom Calhoun, 64, said by phone. "It's devastating. I can't handle it. I just couldn't get myself to go down there.

"Thank God those people up front weren't there."

Calhoun said the home is insured.

Eleven units responded with support from Gulfport and South Pasadena fire departments, Feinberg said.

Almost an hour after the fire began, crews continued to drench the house, hacking into a wall with an ax to check for hot spots.

The fire, which is still under investigation, was under control by about 2:20 p.m. Neither the cause nor the extent of the damage was determined by late Sunday.

Jones, who was sitting in the back yard wearing purple pajamas with a yellow tarp draped over her shoulders, was too distraught to talk.

Feinberg said the American Red Cross was going to help her find temporary housing. "Obviously she lost everything she has," he said.

[Last modified April 9, 2007, 01:18:21]