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Officials say two wildfires half a mile apart in Hernando County appear to be arson.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 9, 2000
ARIPEKA -- They sit just feet from the Gulf of Mexico, but it was fire that threatened four homes here Saturday.
Seven fire departments from Hernando, Pasco and Citrus counties responded to two brush fires a half mile apart that tore through 20 acres of marshland, fire officials said. Officials said the fires appear to have been deliberately set. No one was injured.
As black clouds rose above the marsh, a helicopter from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office repeatedly dipped a 100-gallon bucket into the Gulf, then raced back over the fire to release its contents.
The fire was called in at about 3:30 p.m. and burned for about two hours, pushed on by shifting winds.
Firefighters and residents saved one home in the upscale Indian Bay Retreat community by spraying it with water as flames jumped over the house. Two other homes in the retreat -- all three of the threatened Indian Bay Retreat homes are owned by prominent Hernando resident John Posey -- and one home a half mile down Osowaw Boulevard were saved when firefighters beat back the flames.
"The fire just exploded right across the marsh," said Vicki Graziano, whose home in Indian Bay Retreat was surrounded on three sides by flames. "I thought it was all over."
The home, standing on 28-foot stilts, had parts of its vinyl siding melted. Graziano and her friends were about to leave for dinner when firefighters told them the fire had blocked them in. Graziano locked her three Rottweilers in her vehicle and got out the hoses.
Down the road, Carol Judy of Lake City was visiting her mother for a family gathering when she heard the crackling of fire and saw flames. Neighbors tried to put it out with shovels, but the wind was too strong. Soon the blaze was in the yard.
"We took our family photo albums and valuables and put them in the car," Judy said. It's the second time her mother's house has been threatened with fire. A brush fire eight months ago ran along the side of the home.
Officials labeled the fire suspicious, pointing to the distance between the blazes and their simultaneous start.
During the blaze, James Rosenquist, a world-renowned pop artist who has lived in Aripeka since 1976, rode by on a mountain bike to survey the damage. Two years ago, he lost one of his homes to a suspicious fire nearby.
"It seems like we've had a firebug," Rosenquist said. "There's two separate fires. That's not a cigarette."
-- Times staff writer Jennifer Farrell contributed to this report.