Fire tears through St. Pete home as strong storms roll through Bay Area

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - All John Wesley could do was watch as his home of more than two decades went up in smoke.

"This is all I have," he said. "It’s all I have. Nothing else," Wesley said.

Wesley was at work Thursday morning when a neighbor called to tell him his house was on fire. At first, he said he didn’t believe his neighbor.

"[I said] ‘You’re lying. You’re lying to me,’" he said. "’My house is not on fire,’ but apparently I was lying because my house was on fire," Wesley said.

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Captain Garth Swingle with St. Pete Fire Rescue said they got a call around 11 a.m. about the home in the 1700 block of 19th Street South.

"Crews got on scene immediately and made sure that they knocked the fire back starting from the neighbor's home, so it didn't catch the neighbors’ homes on fire," Swingle said.

Storms in the area temporarily forced firefighters to take shelter.

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"Lightning, tornadoes, torrential downpour…that's going to be dangerous to anybody. So, yeah, of course, the tornado warning that came through that we got, immediately we made sure everybody's safe inside the vehicles," Swingle said.

"Luckily, we were able to get the situation under control and the bulk of the fire was knocked down before that weather hit us. The issue with having the fire to be completely extinguished and stay out happened right in the middle of it. So, we did get those lines in place because we knew it was coming. So, we put water on it while we got inside the trucks to stay safe," Swingle added.  

Swingle said the roof collapsed, and the fire caused a powerline to fall near the home, but the powerline didn’t cause the fire. Wesley said it’s about more than losing a house and everything in it.

"It’s my whole world. It’s my everything. I raised my kids there. All of my kids are grown and have their own kids and houses," Wesley said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The Red Cross responded to help Wesley with a place to stay.

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