June 26 -- LAKELAND, FL -- Two residents and two employees were sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation and 150 others were evacuated to the Bank of America lobby after a fire started on the roof of the Lake Morton Plaza assisted living high-rise on Lime Street and South Florida Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.
It started at about 12:45 p.m., with a funnel of thick, black smoke climbing from the roof. Officials said they believed an air-conditioning unit was the source of the fire, but they are still investigating. Firefighters put out the flames in about 20 minutes, with at least 11 Lakeland Fire Department trucks, four ambulances and a paramedic unit, and more than a dozen Lakeland Police Department officers responding. South Florida Avenue between Orange and Walnut streets, and Lime Street from Missouri Avenue to Tennessee Avenue, were blocked off for several hours.
As the first residents were evacuated, they were moved into a parking lot across Lime Street and firefighters, police officers, volunteers from neighboring businesses and arriving relatives sought shady spots for them. Officers were setting up some emergency shade tents when word spread quickly that the Bank of America, kitty-corner from the plaza, had opened its large, air-conditioned lobby to evacuees.
Some residents were seen sitting in their open windows or on their balconies as they waited to be helped. Light smoke could be seen coming from the front doors.
"There was a lot of that heavy, black smoke that had sunk down," said Janel Vasallo, LFD spokeswoman, as firefighters continued to work. "Firefighters are going floor-to-floor."
"I was in the dining room eating," said Lucile Blew, 93, who has lived on the eighth floor for 4 1/2 years. "We saw all the fire and police vehicles come right after another. I thought it was for somewhere else at first, then I started smelling smoke. We were evacuated as a group from the dining room."
Sisters Barbara Carter, 74, and Betty Roberts, 80, said they had left their two dogs, Peaches and George, in their two-bedroom apartment on the eighth floor when they went to lunch in the first-floor dining hall.
"We are worried about our dogs," Carter said, as the two waited in the bank lobby.
Quin Sanders, 85, who had brought her dog Jessie James out of the building with her, said, "The alarm did not go off on the second floor and that upsets me. I have lived there almost two years and we have never had a fire drill. This proves the need for an alarm and fire drill."
But, "This is a wonderful way for the bank to get customers," she joked as she looked around the large bank lobby filled with evacuees.
Barbara and Darrell Madsen, both 85, said that although there had not been a fire drill in their three years at the Plaza, they had been told what not to do and what to do in the event of a fire.
"We had just finished lunch. Our daughter, Sheri Wright, had joined us for lunch," Barbara Madsen said. "When the alarm went off she took us over to the bank lobby, saying it would be cooler. When we got here, the bank told her to let people know they could come here."
Elaine Fennessey, 75, who has lived at the Plaza for about a year, said she, like many of the residents, was in the dining hall. "They told us to stay there. We were there at least a half-hour before they said the whole building was being evacuated. We were getting the smell of smoke, but it wasn't smoky in the dining room. Some people were panicking and trying to leave but they turned them around and told them to stay put."
Mary Miller, 75, and her husband, Dick Miller, 73, said they did not hear any alarms in their eighth-floor apartment and were not aware of the fire until a firefighter knocked on their door and told them they had to leave, shortly before 1:30 p.m.
"We had to walk down the stairs, eight floors," said Dick Miller, who was wearing pressure socks on both legs. "It was very difficult. I scraped myself, tore the skin on my arm coming down," he said, showing a bandage wrapped around his right forearm.
"The firefighters dressed it as soon as we got outside," he said of his injured arm. "Everyone has been really good to us, but it was difficult getting out."
Although there had been no smoke in their apartment, when they stepped into the hallway, "it was really getting bad," Mary Miller said. "Dick was having a hard time going down the stairs so I stopped at the fifth floor and opened the door to see what was happening, maybe we could rest. It was really smoky there and we had to keep going."
The Millers' daughter arrived at the bank lobby to take them to her home about the same time 90 other residents were being loaded into small Citrus Connection buses for transport to the RP Funding Center, where, according to an announcement by a fire department official, they would be taken to the Exhibit Hall. LFD's Vasallo said they will remain there until Lake Morton Plaza officials find alternate housing.
Jack Davis and Mary Davis, 93, arrived in the bank lobby looking winded and a volunteer came up and immediately offered them water.
"We were in our apartment on the second floor and never heard an alarm until a fireman came and told us we had to go," Jack Davis said. "It was smoky in the hallway but not in the rooms."
Dave Leshnick, branch manager at the Bank of America, and other employees were pouring drinks and walking around the crowded lobby joking with the evacuees. "We were happy to help out. Publix has an office across the street and they brought us a bunch of chairs," he said.
One of the women who could be seen helping numerous residents from the hot parking lot into the cooler lobby said she works at State Farm, across the street, and was there helping whatever way she could.
The 10-story building was constructed in 1984. During a February inspection by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, no deficiencies were found. The building is licensed for 126 assisted living beds and is listed as fully occupied.
Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at [email protected] or 863-802-7514. Follow her on Twitter at KimberlyMooreTheLedger@KMooreTheLedger. Marilyn Meyer can be reached at [email protected].
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