PORT ST. LUCIE — A house fire has displaced a family from its home on Penrose Avenue.

St. Lucie County Fire District crews were called to the fire shortly before 2 p.m. on Tuesday. When they got to the house in the 1700 block of Penrose, the flames had spread to roughly half the house, district spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. Chaney said firefighters had the blaze under control by 2:22 p.m.

The fire started in the back porch, reached the roof and then spread throughout the house, Chaney said. No one was home during the blaze, which also spread to a wooded lot next door.

The Red Cross is helping the family find temporary shelter. The cause of the fire is unknown.

FORT PIERCE — A man using a walker died this morning after he was hit by a vehicle while he was trying to cross Juanita Avenue.

St. Lucie County Fire District crews responded to 1111 Bedford Drive at about 7:10 this morning, district spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. Witnesses told crews Fort Pierce resident Cecil Rivers, 51, was walking across the street when he was struck, Chaney said.

The vehicle that struck him was driven by Fort Pierce resident Ezekiel Rhyant, 77, according to Florida Highway Patrol. Neither Rhyant or his passenger were injured.

According to FHP, Rhyant was driving east on Juanita when Rivers walked into his path.

Paramedics transported Rivers to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center for treatment, fire district and Florida Highway Patrol officials said. According to FHP, the man died this morning.

No other information was immediately available.

St. Lucie County firefighters spent nearly two hours cleaning up a fuel spill Wednesday night.

At 11:25 p.m. special operations crews from the St. Lucie County Fire District was called to the spill at the 142 mile marker on Florida’s Turnpike, according to spokeswoman Catherine Chaney.

Roughly 75 gallons of fuel had spilled from a cargo truck after a crash. There were no injuries, Chaney said.

Firefighters were on the scene until 1:20 a.m.

FORT PIERCE — Torenda Youngblood stood outside his rust-colored house on Monday morning and tried to make sense of the death of his son.

The son who did what he was told, the father remembered. The son who was supposed to join the Navy after he was done with school. The son who was his namesake.

Torenda Youngblood Jr. died Monday morning after he was shot at his bus stop on the corner of Avenue K and N. 22 Street. He was 16.

He was also the city’s second homicide this year, and the fourth victim of a shooting since early Saturday.

“That is unusual,” Deputy Chief of Police James Nygaard said on Monday. “This has been a challenging weekend.”
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St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials are investigating the death of a man whose body was found beside a canal north of Fort Pierce early this morning.

Someone walking in the area of North 25th Street and Avenue T found the body around 6:15 this morning and called 911, sheriff’s officials said.

Sheriff Ken Mascara said the body is that of a black male in his 40s or 50s, wearing jeans, a shirt and jacket. The body, which was found next to a bicycle, was soaked, suggesting that he had been in the canal. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Firefighters are working to contain a 1.5-acre fire that broke out in a wooden area west of Florida’s Turnpike.

The St. Lucie County Fire District got the call about 11:50 a.m. and arrived to battle the brush fire in a heavily wooden area off the intersection of Del Rio Boulevard and Lennox Street, spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said this afternoon.

A portion of Del Rio by Lennox Street has been closed to traffic, Chaney said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A bicyclist is in critical condition after he was struck by a vehicle last night.

John Mejias, 19, was heading north in the 1900 block of Floresta Drive when he was struck from behind, Port St. Lucie police spokesman Officer Thomas Nichols said. Mejias, of Port St. Lucie, fell, hitting his head on a concrete driveway, Nichols said. (more…)

A man was flown to a burn center in critical condition on Friday night after working on a trailer in Fort Pierce.

The man, described to be in his mid-20s, had been using a saw to cut up the hitch of a pick-up truck in a wooden area off McNeill Road, St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. The trailer had a leaking gas tank and vapors from the tank ignited, causing a flash fire, Chaney said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A man who fell about 12 feet at a worksite in the 200 block of Port St. Lucie Boulevard about 4 p.m. Tuesday was flown by helicopter to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Catherine Chaney, spokeswoman for the St. Lucie County Fire District, said the man, said to be in his 50s, sustained “serious but not life-threatening injuries.”

The helicopter apparently picked up the man at a ball field near Bayshore Elementary School, where the chopper and several fire district vehicles were seen.

By ANA X. CERON AND KATHLEEN CHAPMAN

Two St. Lucie County firefighters were arrested Tuesday on felony charges that they were raising marijuana to sell.

Herman Gonzalez

Herman Michael Gonzalez, a nine-year veteran of the St. Lucie County Fire District, was arrested outside the commercial warehouse in western Martin County where, officials said, dozens of pot plants with a total street value of $400,000 were growing under hot lights.

Gonzalez, 36, faces felony charges of marijuana cultivation and trafficking more than 25 pounds of the drug. He was being held in the Martin County jail Tuesday on $105,000 bail.

Later Tuesday, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a shed in Fort Pierce run by a second firefighter, Edward Joseph Nobles. There, they found four marijuana plants, a grow light, and more than 100 seedlings. According to the arrest affidavit, Nobles, 37, admitted that he was growing the plants to make extra money.

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