Hernando Today
Fire Consumes Home
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Published: May 16, 2008
SPRING HILL - Firefighters were called to a residence at 4048 Dristol Ave. on Friday afternoon as workers repairing the roof of the home hastily clambered to safety.
About 2:30 p.m., homeowner Charles Beltramini said he heard the roofers overhead shout "fire" as they began climbing down from the roof.
They were "yelling for everybody to get out," he said.
Beltramini had just enough time to back his car out of the garage and see that his wife, daughter and dogs were out of the house safely as the fire spread.
Locating exactly where the fire started could prove difficult because the first emergency responders to arrive saw flames all over the roof.
"I couldn't tell you what happened," said Beltramini, who has lived on Dristol Avenue for 13 years.
Spring Hill firefighters had just begun hosing down the blaze from inside when they were forced to retreat by the collapsing roof.
"It became a defensive fire pretty quick," said Assistant Chief Bill Davies.
The white house with blue trim and a porch swing under a shade tree appeared to be a total loss. The fire marshal will determine the exact source of the fire.
Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( chriss100602 ) on May 16, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I'll bet the workers on the roof know how it started.... no one thought to ask them? Prime suspects if you ask me. I'd like to know what company it was, so I never hire them.
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Posted by ( hemi_girl ) on May 16, 2008 at 10:43 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
When I had a roof replaced on my rental house in Spring Hill last year, all of the roofers smoked cigarettes like crazy while they were up on my roof and they threw their butts off the roof down in my yard....I called their office and told the owner of the roofing company that I wanted every single cigarette butt picked up out of my yard before he would get paid for the job.....so the fire could have started that way on the Dristol house....or maybe they had a Ford parked up on the roof........
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Posted by ( SpringHillConcernedCitizen ) on May 17, 2008 at 6:26 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Both commentors are exactly correct! I also have school children trampling through my front lawn leaving cigarette butts. I am watching to see who drops the next one because I don't want my lawn to ignite.
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Posted by ( iamwatchingu ) on May 17, 2008 at 8:46 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I can tell you a cigarette would not catch shingles on fire or roofing paper unless it is insulated....(covered by the paper). My guess would be they may have been using tar to seal around vent pipes and in the process of heating it caused a fire. But you are right about one thing, throwing cigarettes in the yard can cause a fire because of the lighweight style fuel and it is ridiculous for a company to allow their personnel to litter peoples yards like this. On another note, it looks as if we are lucky some firefighters didnt get hurt when that roof collapsed due to the fire that was caused by stupidity
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Posted by ( javaman ) on May 17, 2008 at 10:11 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
that happened to me, last year, workers were using a torch on the roof,thank god minimal damage was done
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Posted by ( DogMedic ) on May 17, 2008 at 10:21 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I know the paper's policy on not printing victim's name but why would you leave out such an important part as the name of the roofing company??? Their neglegence just bought them a house on Dristol and other innocent citizens have a right to know about unscruptulous contractors practices. Please don't HALF report a story. God Bless Spring Hill Fire Rescue - no one was injured in this tragedy.
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Posted by ( SpringHillConcernedCitizen ) on May 17, 2008 at 10:47 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
It might not have been a roofing company, per say; said that they were having the roof repaired. Could have been any independent; carpenter, etc...
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Posted by ( chriss100602 ) on May 17, 2008 at 3:14 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The contractor is G.E. Levesque Inc. 18364 Quetzal Rd. Brooksville, FL 34614. Phone #352-799-3775. There you go, Mr. Martin, I have successfully done your research for you. See, this newspaper-reporting-thing ain't so hard after all. Shall I give them a call and see if they have an official statement prepared yet?
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Posted by ( TruthLiberates ) on May 17, 2008 at 4:18 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Folks one thing you might want to do before ripping this company apart, is remember that mistakes happen. I dare say we have all made them, and since none of us are fire marshalls we all might want to be a bit slower on the rush to judgement. Good peoples names have been destroyed by lesser events. What is that old golden rule, do to others what you would like them to do to you? Not sure any of us would want our names slandered and run in the mud if we made one mistake.
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Posted by ( SpringHillConcernedCitizen ) on May 17, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
And exactly who is chriss100602 to say who they were? The newspaper spared them, why couldn't chriss? As truthliberates stated; do not know what or who was at fault, yet. Don't be judge and jury too quickly.
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Posted by ( chriss100602 ) on May 17, 2008 at 7:19 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I'm not trying to be judge and jury, but we all know this paper doesn't report "fair and balanced." It's pretty much always a one-sided story, right? Everyone says, I wonder who the contractor was? I found out for you. Gods bless the Sunshine Act, and capitalism.
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Posted by ( lbel87 ) on May 19, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
this was my house :-(
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Posted by ( anjostrom ) on May 21, 2008 at 1:35 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
EVERYONE WANT TO KNOW HOW CHRIS100602 IS? SHE IS A NASTY BACK BITTING MANIPULATIVE WOMAN WHO HAS NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN PLAY GAMES WITH HER CHILDRENS LIVES. THIS IS MY STEP MOTHER WHO IS NOW TOURMENTING ME BECUASE MY UNCLE DIED AND LEFT ME BENNIFICARY TO HIS LIFE INSURANCE AND I WOULD NOT HAND IT OVER LIKE A ROBOT TO MY FATHER AND CHRIS100602. THIS WOMAN WHO HAS NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN POST COMMENTS AND TRY TO DESTROY THE COMPANY MY HUSBAND WORKS FOR IS ONLY DOING THIS BECAUSE HER AND MY FATHER HAVE NO OTHER AVENUES AT TRYING TO DESTROY US. WE ALREADY HAD TO MOVE TO ESCAPE THEIR GAMES AND TORMENT AND NOW THAT THEY CANT COME TO OUR DOOR WITH HARASSMENT, THEY PLAY THESE GAMES.THE HOUSEFIRE HAPPENED TO BE RIGHT BEHIND WHERE CHRIS100602 LIVES WITH MY DAD AND THAT IS HOW THEY WERE ABLE TO GET THE INFORMATION OFF OF MY HUSBANDS WORK TRUCK. MY DISABLED FATHER HAS NOTHING BETTER TO DO DURING THE DAY THEN HUNT DOWN AND HARASS PEOPLE. MAYBE EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT YESTERDAYS NEWPAPER WHERE THEY MENTIONED OTHER CAUSES SUCH AS THE STOVE IN THE HOME!!!!
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Posted by ( lbel87 ) on June 6, 2008 at 4:27 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
to (anjostrom) im sorry about your problems but before u post information about what happend to my house you should get your facts straight because if you read the paper the next the there was a retraction to that article saying it was the roofing company...that stove fire was a diffrent house!
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