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Pasco firefighters battle the four-acre blaze off Old Pasco Road for several hours.
By KENT FISCHER
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 7, 2001
WESLEY CHAPEL -- Two dozen Pasco County firefighters fought a stubborn four-acre brush fire Sunday afternoon off Old Pasco Road.
Terry Jean and her husband, Butch Jean, came back from a morning of fishing to find the smoky fire threatening their neighbors' homes along Bay Pines Drive. Butch Jean parked his boat in the driveway, grabbed a garden hose and took off to his neighbors' homes.
Florence Bill was working at Wal-Mart in Land O'Lakes when her daughter called. "Better get home," her daughter told her. "Your neighbor's yard is on fire."
When Bill arrived, she found Butch Jean and her son-in-law hosing down her roof. The fire was just a few feet from her back door and had already eaten through much of an old orange grove behind her house.
"There were three of them up there, keeping it nice and wet," Bill said. "I thought that was awfully nice of them to come out and help like that."
None of the houses in the area were damaged by the fire, and there were no injuries reported.
Pasco County firefighters used bulldozers and pumper trucks to battle the fire, which took several hours to bring under control.