2 14 2009 cherry street

About 2:55 minutes of video from scene at 1900 block W Cherry Street taken just after the flames were extinguished.

A couple of things you will see in the video includes a chief officer looking at a black suitcase propped up on the trunk of a car, this is a video downlink from the police helicopter circling overhead. This video downlink gave the chief a chance to get a wide view of the scene.

The other thing you see is a close up of the windshield of Truck-9. The windshield on this ladder truck was cracked by the heat of the fire. The truck was on the street in front of the houses.

On 2/14/09 at 0218 hrs TFR units responded to a house fire in the 1900 block of W Cherry Street in West Tampa. On scene at 0223 hrs fire crews reported a single story wood-frame house to be well involved in fire and the house next door about 25 percent involved in fire. As fire crews were advancing their first hoselines to try and stop the fire spread a power line fell onto the hose. The hose was damaged by the powerline causing fire crews to move out of the way of the downed power line and get a new fire hose to work with. Tampa Electric arrived on scene about 20 minutes later and shut off the downed power line. Fortunately no one was hurt. It took about 40 minutes to bring the flames under control; no injuries were reported.

An Investigator from the Tampa Fire Marshals Office has determined that a married couple Gloria Milligan, 56 years old and Major Milligan, 82 years old, were asleep inside their longtime residence at 1920 W Cherry Street. Someone pounding on the front door awoke them because the house next door at 1916 W Cherry was on fire. (NOTE: property and police records do not list an address of 1918 W Cherry so the address where the fire started is being listed as 1916) The Milligans exited safely.

1916 W Cherry, where the fire started, has been vacant but reportedly new tenants were scheduled to move in soon. 1916 Cherry was destroyed as was 1920 Cherry. One other vacant house at 1912 Cherry had minor damage from the radiant heat of the fire. Fire crews managed to protect the occupied house at 1922 Cherry from suffering any damage. Houses in this area are separated by only a few feet of space.

The fire cause remains under investigation. No loss estimate is yet available.

TFR responded to this two-alarm fire with 7 fire engines, 3 rescue cars, 2 ladder trucks and a few chief officers. An estimated 43 responder were on scene from fire stations in West Tampa, Hilldale, Downtown, Hyde Park, Robles Park, Westshore and Palma Ceia.

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Education

Tags:

• West
• Tampa
• Cherry
• Street
• fire