Blaze destroys PGI home

Neighbors say fire call took too long

Charlotte Sun
December 26, 2006

NEIL HUGHES
Staff Writer

PUNTA GORDA ISLES -- As the lights in his home flickered excessively on a stormy Christmas afternoon, Bruce Vandeventer knew something was wrong.

Instinctively, he turned off the circuit breakers for his home and his next door neighbor -- his mother, Jessie Vandeventer.

Bruce Vandeventer's instincts were better than he and anyone else could have imagined -- just a few hours later, his mother's home was engulfed in flames.

The fire, at 1446 Kittiwake Drive in Punta Gorda Isles, was the talk of the neighborhood Monday night, as many people saw it clearly across the water from Bal Harbor Boulevard. No one was injured in the blaze, which destroyed the home.

Fire and smoke still came from the charred home after 7 p.m. -- more than two hours after the fire began.

Vandeventer, an electronics technician, called Florida Power and Light sometime after noon on Monday as the lights at flickered. He said the technician, who drove out from Arcadia, didn't arrive until about 4 p.m -- at least 3 and a half hours later.

His twin grandsons, Michael and James Vandeventer, 16, in town from Illinois, had noticed a spark coming from the electrical box in front of the homes. When the FPL employee arrived, he opened the lid to the box in front of the house.

"And it was toasted," Vandeventer said.

Soon after, he noticed smoke coming from his mother's house. Assuming the FPL technician would have a better chance of fast-tracking a call to the fire department, he had the responder make the call.

"It was almost 20 minutes, and that's why we lost this thing," Vandeventer said standing in front of his home as Jessie's was hosed by the PGFD. "I think they could have got it under control if they were here a lot quicker."

Vandeventer said he was told by an investigator from the fire department that the call went through a few channels before it got to the PGFD. He said she told him once they received the call, the first truck arrived within three minutes.

"The residents in this neighborhood ought to know how long it took this damn fire department to get here," Vandeventer said.

He and his family had just finished repairing the roof on his mother's home, which was damaged by Hurricane Charley. He said he doesn't fault the individual firefighters who responded, but was frustrated by the response time.

"I know how dedicated these guys are, I really do," he said. "They responded fast enough, but they didn't get the call."

After cutting the power, Vandeventer and his family finished their Christmas dinner on the grill, but they never had a chance to eat it. He said the house went up in flames "incredibly fast."

"Even if they got here in three minutes, who knows if they could have saved it," he said.

Battalion Chief Charles Kapudjija acknowledged that FPL had said here was an electrical problem in the area. He could not comment on the fire department's response. Officials from the PGFD and FPL could not be reached Christmas night.

One of the first on the scene was Punta Gorda City Councilman Bill Albers.

Albers and his brother-in-law were relaxing at his nearby home when they noticed the fire.

"We were sitting at our lanai having cocktails and he said 'Is that smoke?'" Albers said. "So, we went over there."

Albers also happens to be a former fire chief from Long Island, N.Y. He and neighbor Rocky Telesco, who lives three doors from the fire, opened the doors to the home and prepped the fire hydrant so the first truck would be able to use it.

But Telesco, who was a firefighter in Baldwin, N.Y., for 12 years, said the first truck didn't immediately use the nearby hydrant, which he said he felt was a mistake.

"To me it looked like they were in a fog," Telesco said of the first truck to respond to the scene.

He said from his experience, officials did not follow standard protocol, which could have cost Bruce and Jessie Vanderventer the house.

"I didn't see much communication going on at all," Telesco said. "It was horrendous."

With what he saw Monday, Telesco said he felt the response was lacking.

"It's a shame, and it's scary to think that we live over here and that's the kind of fire protection we've got," he said.