Tampa Bay briefs

None hurt in fire that causes $90,000 damage

TAMPA -- A Tuesday afternoon fire in a South Tampa home caused $90,000 in damage but no injuries, Tampa fire officials said.

Brian and Karoline Mark and their 7-year-old son were inside the home at 3608 W Leona Ave. when the blaze erupted, but all managed to escape.

Investigators think the fire started in the carport, where flames were generated by heat created inside a trash can full of decomposing food and other items.

Karoline Mark noticed the burning carport and tried to douse the flames with a garden hose. She also attempted to remove a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo but was turned back by the heat.

When fire crews arrived about 1 p.m., the fire had spread to the den.

Woman killed when car overturns on I-275

ST. PETERSBURG -- A Sarasota woman was killed Christmas morning after her car overturned on Interstate 275, authorities said.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Roberta Lynn Parkinson, 55, was traveling north on the interstate at 10 a.m. when she lost control of her 1996 Chevrolet near 28th Street.

Parkinson's car entered the median, flipped once and came to a rest upside down in the road. No passengers were in the car.

The Highway Patrol said the accident was alcohol-related and that Parkinson was wearing her seat belt but gave no further details.

New sheriff's employees must pledge not to smoke

WEST PALM BEACH -- New hires at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office must be nonsmokers and sign a no-smoking pledge as a condition of employment next year.

The policy will also ban smoking in police cars and move designated smoking areas at least 50 feet away from buildings beginning in February, said Undersheriff Ken Eggleston.

Current employees who smoke won't be affected by the policy banning new hires of smokers, he said.

In 1996, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a similar smoking policy in North Miami. Lower insurance costs outweighed issues of privacy, the court ruled.

Boca Raton considered the ban two years ago, then decided against it after some council members said it was too invasive of employee rights. But contracts with three unions that represent most city employees already included a no-smoking pledge for new hires.

Map to help officials pinpoint wildfire risks

FORT PIERCE -- State officials are developing a map designed to help reduce wildfires and pinpoint where they could do the most damage as part of a project to create a Florida Fire Risk Assessment.

The map will compare satellite images with ground surveys at 3,500 sites throughout the state to predict how flammable the woods are in any part of Florida, said James Brenner, a fire management administrator with the Division of Forestry in Tallahassee.

The assessment is expected to be finished in May. Most of the 2002 wildfire season -- which runs from January through June -- will have passed by then, but officials expect it will help prevent wildfires in the future.

Since Jan. 1, at least 3,500 wildfires have burned more than 320,000 acres in Florida.

Woman who said she was priestess is sentenced

MIAMI -- A 49-year-old woman who claimed to have earned more than $100,000 as a Santeria priestess was sentenced to 10 years in prison for dealing cocaine.

A judge also fined Alicia Latras $100,000 on Thursday.

In August, a jury convicted Latras of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine.

Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested a man leaving Latras' house March 13. They found about 14 ounces of cocaine inside his car. Inside Latras' home they found $78,000 and cocaine, prosecutors said.

Latras said the money came from people paying her to exercise her powers as a Santeria priestess.

-- From staff and wire reports

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