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By Keith Morelli
The Tampa Tribune

Photos From The Scene Of Fire | Video

TAMPA – A huge fire that burned through the roof of a hotel is now under control. Firefighters have gone into the building to put out hot spots.

A call about the The Best Western Inn & Suites came in as a structure fire and immediately went to four alarms, with about 60 firefighters at the scene, according to Hillsborough Fire Rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley, who gave the following account.

The building is wood and stucco and when firefighters arrived, they saw smoke and some flames coming out of the east side of the building along the eaves at the roofline. By the time they sent firefighters in, they noticed it swept halfway through along the roofline and was starting to come out through a window about halfway down the building, which is west of where the fire first started.

When it did that, they decided to pull all the firefighters out, fearing it was burning so fast it might collapse. Firefighters outside hit the sirens and horns outside to alert the firefighters inside.

As they were doing that, two firefighters were at the top of the stair, directing firefighters down and out of the building. One fell down the stairs, resulting in a May Day call.

He is not inured.

Yeakley said there was a sprinkler system in the building that was tested and working, but not activated.

Firefighters from area stations, plus a rescue truck from Brandon were at the scene.

Louis Pagan, a plumber who was working on the second floor, said, “somebody yelled fire and I grabbed my tools and ran.”

The fire was under control by 12:20 p.m.  Investigators don’t know what caused the fire yet.

Emergency crews closed Waters Avenue east and directed traffic onto Manhattan Avenue.  The westbound lanes are open.

Stay with TBO.com for developments.

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