Incinerator fire proves stubborn

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

SHADY HILLS -- It smoldered for more than 12 hours, but by 7:30 Thursday night the fire at the county incinerator on Hays Road was out.

Nearly three dozen firefighters spent all day Thursday battling the blaze, which broke out in piles of garbage waiting to be burned. No one was injured, and there were no reports of damage to the building.

Family makes offer to drop bus lawsuit

DADE CITY -- An attorney representing a Dade City boy who sued claiming he got sick from eating a spoiled sandwich on a 1998 school trip has offered to settle the lawsuit for $15,000.

The family of 11-year-old Cody Gude is suing Lakeland-based Central Florida Transit Inc., a charter bus company that took Gude on a class trip to the Florida Aquarium in October 1998.

The suit contends Cody was forced to store his lunch in an uncooled area below the passenger

cabin. As a result, the mayonnaise on his turkey sandwich spoiled and Cody got sick after returning home, the lawsuit contends.

The boy spent five days at Lakeland Regional Hospital suffering from a bacterial illness, according to Cody's mother, Linda.

He continued to require daily antacid treatment to sooth his stomach after he was released, she said.

When the lawsuit was filed last year, bus company manager Joe Dickey said his bus had a functioning air-conditioning system and that the ride was too short for any spoilage to have occurred even if it had not been working.

The sandwich, he contended, would have had to have been spoiled before the boy boarded the bus.

Defense attorney Christ Roberts on Friday said the settlement offer has not been accepted and he would continue to investigate the complaint and questions about the boy's medical history indicating he might have had a pre-existing condition.

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