‘My wife! My wife!’ husband shouts as flames engulf condo
July 6th, 2009 by Ana X. CeronPORT SALERNO - He remembered the flames billowing from the second floor. And his neighbor screaming, “My wife! My wife!”.
Two days after a fire blazed in a corner unit of a waterside condo building on Manatee Lane, a resident there recalled the panic and pain that night..
About 2:40 a.m. Saturday, Martin County firefighters arrived at the 4600 block of Manatee to battle the blaze that killed a woman..
She was upstairs when the fire broke out, remembered the neighbor, who declined to give his name. Her husband was on the ground floor, trying to put out the flames with a garden hose. It was not enough, the man said.
All of the other neighbors were able to flee the building unharmed. However, it was not to be their last blaze.
About 24 hours later a second fire broke out in the same unit, this time downstairs, according to fire officials.
No one was injured then, the man said, but the second blaze ended up damaging more of the building, leaving residents homeless.
The man identified the couple who rented the corner unit by their first names, Jim and Donna, saying he did not know their last names.
“All we feel for is Jim,” he said outside the building where melted soffits dangled from the roof like curtains.
State fire marshal officials were waiting on autopsy results to confirm the identity of the resident who died, Martin County Fire Rescue spokesman Jon Belding said Monday.
The state agency was investigating to determine the cause of the two fires, which are not believed to be related, Belding said.
Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.
Tags: Manatee Lane
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