The last tenant in the house that had just been seized by a bank managed to save her dog, but may have lost the rest of her possessions.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published November 21, 2003
CLEARWATER - Phyllis Holmes was getting ready for work Thursday morning when she smelled smoke. She thought it was an electrical cord or something minor.
But when she looked outside her apartment, she saw the building was on fire. She gathered up her dog, Barak, and ran outside.
"I grabbed my dog and ran into the street screaming and yelling," she said.
Someone called 911 at 8:01 a.m. Clearwater firefighters pulled up to the burning house five minutes later and put the fire out in a half-hour. No one was injured.
Holmes, 45, was the only person living in the home at 1391 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., which is split into five apartments.
The city of Clearwater had tagged it as unsafe, and the building had been seized by a bank before the fire, according to Holmes and fire officials.
The blaze began in a back porch area, but investigators had not determined a cause Thursday, Clearwater Fire Marshal Joel Gray said.
Holmes was planning to move out this weekend. She said most of her belongings, which she had boxed up, probably were destroyed in the fire, which fire crews contained to her unit. Damage was estimated at $15,000.
"I think I'm going to lose just about everything in there," Holmes said.
