Nov. 06--MANATEE -- A local pediatrician and her staff must find a new location after a weekend blaze destroyed their office building.
The office of West Coast Pediatrics, 1414 59th St. W., was destroyed in a fire early Sunday. Dr. Constance Charles-Logan is seeking a new, permanent office location while his staff works out of a temporary office.
"There was nothing salvageable in the building, nothing worth taking," West Manatee Fire Marshall Jim Davis said.
West Manatee Fire Rescue responded to the fire at 1:06 a.m. Sunday, according to the West Manatee Fire District. The fire was reported by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office after the flames apparently set off the burglar alarm. Deputies responded to the office building to investigate the alarm and discovered the fire.
"By the time deputies arrived, flames and smoke were visible," Davis said. "We had 30-foot flames showing when we first got there."
No one was in the medical office building or surrounding medical office buildings, one reason Davis said the fire went undetected for some time.
There were no reported injuries.
It took some time for firefighters to control the blaze, but they contained it from spreading to nearby buildings.
"The difficulty with extinguishing the fire was because of the multi-generations of the roof," Davis said.
Various materials used over the years to repair the roof caused problems for firefighters since the renovations created concealed spaces for the fire to spread, Davis said. Fifty percent of the roof collapsed as a result of the fire.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but it is being investigated by the State Fire Marshall's office in Tampa. Hector Noyes, handling the investigation, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
The estimated cost of damages is unknown at this time, but typically it must surpass $1 million to involve state investigators, according to Davis.
The company insuring the building, owned by Logan, hired its own private fire investigator, Todd Spear, to investigate the cause of the fire. Spear would not comment on his investigation.
"The area of origin was the corner of the mechanical room with multiple possible areas of ignition," Davis said. "With laboratory results we may be able to determine which one of those components is the culprit."
The mechanical room included stereo equipment and battery backup equipment for servers and phones.
Patient files were not lost in the blaze, according to staff.
Logan was unavailable for comment as she was seeking a new location for practice. Staff said they hoped to be back in operation by the end of the week.
Staff is only taking triage calls now. The doctor's office is still working to restore its computers.
Logan, originally from Jamaica, worked pediatrics for three years at Rural Health Services in Bradenton before opening the pediatric section of the Women's and Children's Health Connection in Sarasota, according to her website.
She acquired West Coast Pediatrics in 1998 and relocated to northwest Bradenton in 1999.
Jessica De Leon, law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter @JDeLeon1012.
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