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By Times staff writers
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 14, 2001
Dump truck overturns on I-275; driver hurt
TAMPA -- The driver of a dump truck carrying dirt and gravel lost control of the truck Friday when the bed began to rise as he drove along Interstate 275, dumping gravel and dirt onto the highway.
Willard W. Fee, 62, of Zephyrhills was southbound near the Sligh Avenue exit about 11:40 a.m. when the truck bed started to rise.
The truck began fishtailing, the Florida Highway Patrol said, then overturned in the right and center lanes.
Willard's left arm and ribs were injured, the FHP said. No charges were filed Friday.
TARPON SPRINGS -- Two Florida Department of Environmental Protection employees were taken to Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital about 6 p.m. Friday after fighting a fire on a spoil island in the Anclote River.
A half-dozen DEP employees were cleaning up the 4-acre island and were burning Australian pine, an exotic plant, when flames jumped a containment ring and spread.
The DEP employees, four women and two men, used rakes, shovels and buckets of water to try to control the flames, which eventually burned about a half-acre.
The Tarpon Springs Fire Department, alerted by the Coast Guard, picked up four of the state employees by boat. The other two returned in their own boat to Anclote River Park, just over the county line in Pasco County.