City honors firefighters' Ybor battle

By ANGELA MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

TAMPA -- Jammie Marsh, a baby-faced woman with freckles and red hair, says she's 20 years old but looks about three years younger.

You'd never guess by looking at her that she's a hero.

Thursday night, Marsh and her buddies from the Lutz Volunteer Fire Department joined other firefighters from across the Tampa Bay area at the Italian Club in Ybor City. There, dignitaries from Tampa and especially Ybor City honored these men and women, some of them as babyfaced as Marsh, as heroes.

These firefighters fought the largest fire in Tampa in 100 years.

The cost to the city was dear. On May 19, a 100-foot-high wall of flame consumed Camden Development's half-built Park at Ybor City apartment complex. The fire spread to a U.S. post office, burning it from the inside-out. No one was killed, but by the time the fire was brought under control, some $40-million of property was destroyed.

But other buildings were spared thanks to the firefighters.

More than 120 firefighters drawn from stations across the city fought the inferno that Friday morning, some of them not leaving until 1 a.m. Saturday. Firefighters from Hillsborough County, Temple Terrace, Seminole, Largo, St. Petersburg, Lutz and Mango/Seffner volunteer units pitched in, too.

Some of the firefighters had nearly 30 years of experience. Marsh had been a volunteer firefighter for seven months. The Ybor City blaze was the first fire she ever fought.

"Some of the older guys told me that I'll be a firefighter for years and years, but I'll never see a fire like that again," Marsh said.

But on Thursday night, Marsh and her Lutz comrades, Jim McAlister, Jon Maye and Spencer Roberts, sat at a white linen-covered table at the Italian Club and marveled at all the attention and free food and drinks they were getting just for doing their jobs.

"It's different and special," Maye said. "It's nice for all of us to come together as a family, and that's what we are."

The big thank you night was organized by the Italian Club's board of directors, said board member Stephanie Cannella.

"The fire was in the heart of a town we love," Cannella said. "These firefighters saved a lot of historic buildings in this vicinity that make Ybor City special."

Capt. Randall Jordan, a 26-year veteran of Tampa Fire Rescue, said he and his firefighters from Station 4 in Ybor City were out to save two buildings that day.

"The two most important things to us were the church and the (Ybor City) Brewery, and not necessarily in that order," he joked.

Actually, Jordan and his wife, Belinda, were married in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church 29 years ago, he said.

"Seriously, it was a tremendous feeling to be able to save the church," Jordan said. "The whole day was pretty incredible."

The cost of the event was paid by non-firefighter attendees, who paid $25 each for dinner, drinks and entertainment. Firefighters were wined and dined for no charge.

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