Assessing the damage

Officials make the first forays into finding the cause of the blaze at the old Blue Ribbon Supermarket.

[Times photo: Mike Pease] Jacob Shields, 76, of Ybor City, watches as rubble from the burned out Blue Ribbon Supermarket is removed on Saturday morning.

By MELANIE AVE

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 13, 2000

TAMPA -- For 30 minutes, firefighters inside the burning Blue Ribbon Supermarket tried to douse the flames.

But the old building had no sprinkler system, and the pine-wood frame was sizzling around them. The brick walls began to crack and cave in from the intense heat.

"That was their first clue," said Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade. "The building was giving up."

They pulled out and focused on containing the fire to the supermarket, hoping to avoid a repeat of the massive fire May 19 that leveled an apartment complex and destroyed a post office.

"The advantage we had (Friday)," Wade said, "it was the only building on the block."

While the Blue Ribbon was destroyed, no other buildings were damaged.

On Saturday, a day after the fire, bulldozers pushed the rubble into piles as investigators looked for evidence into the fire's cause.

The blaze caused $1-million in damage and altered a developer's plan to renovate the 79-year-old building into Ybor City's largest dance club.

As a steady rain fell, architect Kenneth Kroger picked through charred bricks, metal and wood, salvaging pieces of the facade that could be used in the club's construction.

"Right now we're optimistic the building will get built," said Kroger, who has spent the last five months drawing plans for the $5.6-million nightclub project. "We have to re-evaluate the whole project and start all over."

Firefighters received a call at 4:19 p.m. Friday that smoke was billowing from inside the building, meaning the fire had been under way for several minutes.

About 45 minutes before the fire was reported, a Tampa Electric Co. worker had climbed a utility pole and restored power to the building. Wade would not say if that played a role in the fire.

"We're aware the electric company had just turned on the power," he said. "But we're still looking into who was in the building and what work was going on in the building."

At least one member of the Ybor City historic commission is calling for a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire. Because many of the buildings in Ybor City were built using similar materials, they could burn just as easily as the Blue Ribbon Supermarket.

"These buildings are priceless," said Joe Howden, member of the Barrio Latino Commission. "Once these buildings are burning, it's very unlikely they can be saved. You're talking about destruction on a historic scale."

Kroger said the Blue Ribbon, with an assessed value of $700,000, was insured by the developer and owner, Roland Penetsdorfer of Austria.

Penetsdorfer Corp. recently bought the building for $2.1-million from the Bobo family, which had operated a supermarket there since 1970.

The grocery store, a popular walk-up supermarket for many downtown dwellers, closed June 16 in preparation for the renovation into a club to be called Night Shift.

Penetsdorfer's original plan was to renovate the supermarket, construct a new building on the existing parking lot next door and create an upscale club with 40,000 square feet and a capacity for 2,400 people.

Architectural renderings for Night Shift show a restaurant, multilevel dance floors and huge television screens.

Building permits had been approved, and the $3.5-million renovation loan had been okayed.

Kroger, president of Architectural Designs Inc., said while the club would have been decidedly modern, Penetsdorfer's plan was to return the existing building to the way it looked in 1921. Construction was set to begin in about two weeks.

Now Penetsdorfer must decide how to proceed.

"He collects antiques and old cars," Kroger said. "For him, this was an extreme loss. He's devastated. The restoration was a pet project for him."

Kroger carried away two soot-covered stucco accents that had adorned the edge of the building's roof.

On Saturday, many former Blue Ribbon customers and curiosity seekers came to watch large cranes lift pieces of the building into trucks headed for the landfill. Several crossed the yellow police tape to get a brick, one last reminder.

One of the souvenir hunters was 35-year-old Ralph Bobo, whose father and uncle once owned the building. He picked up a couple of bricks to take home and talked about the building, a sentimental loss for his family.

"I'm used to driving by there and thinking, I remember the supermarket," he said. "Now I can't say nothing. It's not there. That's what's upsetting."

His father, Sam Bobo, who owned the Blue Ribbon with his brother Eli, sat a block away from the store in front of Larmon's Furniture, a look of disbelief on his face.

"When we sold it, it was heart wrenching," he said. "But this is really kind of the end, the real end. This is the burial right here."

- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3473 or melanie@sptimes.com.

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