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Letter to the editor

Townhomes fire leaves eight homeless, $1-million in damage

By Times Staff Writers
Published January 6, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [Jim Damaske | Times] Firefighters examine the wreckage of a fire at Westlake Village Townhomes in Palm Harbor Thursday morning after the fire that started late Wednesday was extinguished. Officials say the fire started in Unit 51 and destroyed four of six units in one building and damaged a fifth, displacing four families.

PALM HARBOR - Ken Hopkins stepped out for a cigarette Wednesday night and ended up saving his neighbors.

Just after 10 p.m., a massive fire tore through a cluster of buildings in Palm Harbor's Townhomes of Westlake Village.

The blaze did more than $1-million in damage to one building, destroying four of six units and damaging a fifth, according to Palm Harbor Fire Rescue.

Eight people were left homeless, but no one was hurt.

Hopkins, the president of the condominium association, was the first to notice the flames and, along with his wife and step-daughter, managed to rouse his neighbors by knocking on their doors and windows.

The fire quickly spread to four other units, with 20-foot flames gutting the two-story stucco condos and turning the sky orange against the serene backdrop of a lake. The two-alarm blaze at 480 Lakeview Drive, just north of Nebraska Avenue and west of Belcher Road, took nearly two hours to extinguish and brought much of the neighborhood outside on the coldest night of the winter.

The fire is being investigated by the state fire marshal and arson detectives from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. It is too early to say how the blaze began, officials said, but by all accounts it started in Unit 51, which is owned by Francis Gregory McClure, 61.

"All we have to go on is what the owner said: He was cooking and left something on the stove," said Palm Harbor Fire Rescue spokeswoman Kris Scholz.

McClure could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Jonathan Abel, Times staff writer

CLEARWATER

Robber picky about his brand of smokes

Clearwater police and Pinellas County sheriff's officials are looking for a robber with a taste for Marlboro Red 100s. Four times, the "cigarette robber," as authorities call him, demanded cartons of that brand of cigarettes before suggesting to store employees that he had a gun or lifting his shirt to show the butt of a pistol tucked into his waistband. He then grabbed the smokes and cash from the register before running out. The robberies took place between Dec. 12 and Dec. 28 in Clearwater, Safety Harbor and Dunedin.

Investigators describe the robber as a white man 45 to 50 years old, who stands 5 feet 8 to 6 feet 2 and weighs 160 to 180 pounds. He has a thin build, salt and pepper hair, a deep voice and crooked teeth. Anyone with information is asked to call Clearwater police at (727) 562-4422, sheriff's Detective Jeremy Nygren at (727) 582-6200 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

Times staff writer

PALM HARBOR

21-year-old man chargedwith molesting boy

A 21-year-old Palm Harbor man was arrested Thursday on a charge that he took a young boy into a closet and molested him Wednesday evening. Pinellas County sheriff's officials charge that George De Jesus Rivera, of 683 Channing Drive, knew the boy and took him into a closet at a home. The boy's mother saw Rivera leave the closet and found her son still inside, and he told her what happened, authorities say. Rivera was being held at the Pinellas County Jail without bail on one count of capital sexual battery on a child younger than 12.

Times staff writer

PALM HARBOR

Incorporation proposal sent to Legislature

The plan to incorporate Palm Harbor took a big step forward Thursday when the dozen members of the Pinellas County legislative delegation voted to send the proposal to the state Legislature.

The proposed bill would give residents of Palm Harbor, Crystal Beach, Ozona and East Lake the opportunity to vote in November on whether they would like to form the new city of Palm Harbor.

Jim Kleyman, spokesman for the Greater Palm Harbor Coalition, an informal partnership of community groups, asked legislators to support the bill so the state could analyze the coalition's feasibility study. Then it would be clearer whether incorporation would benefit residents.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Peter Nehr, R-Tarpon Springs, who supports giving Palm Harbor residents a chance to make their own choices.

Theresa Blackwell, Times staff writer

CLEARWATER

Otter hit, killed on downtown street

It's no secret that Florida is the Land of Roadkill: armadillos, possums, raccoons, dogs and cats, even turtles.

But a dead otter?

Near downtown Clearwater?

Sad but true.

Sometime before 9 a.m. Wednesday, a river otter apparently tried to cross Court Street from one retention pond to another at Glen Oaks Park.

But the sleek mammal, so graceful in the water, was out of its element on the asphalt, where it apparently was struck and killed.

Ironically, the otter might have been drawn to its fate by a city project that expanded aquatic habitat next to Court Street, used by 32,500 cars and trucks a day.

A little more than a year ago, Clearwater officials completed a $7.6-million project that transformed the old 27-acre Glen Oaks Golf Course into a park with large, new ponds.

"It is a natural ecological setting," said Kevin Dunbar, the city's director of Parks and Recreation. "That was the whole idea."

Theresa Blackwell, Times staff writer

[Last modified January 5, 2008, 22:36:22]