A woman tried to put out a fire in her home with a garden hose before calling the fire department, authorities said.
By the time firefighters arrive at the burning home on Jacaranda Road on Monday morning, the fire had killed her two cats and reduced her $280,000 home to a charred husk, said neighbors and fire officials. No one was hurt.
The homeowner, listed by the Manatee County Property Appraiser as Joan Zak, was visiting a neighbor across the street when the fire occurred.
She declined to be interviewed when contacted by The Herald on Tuesday. Her neighbors said she lived in the house with a man and the two cats, Tucker and Charlie.
Fire authorities said the blaze started in a storage area on the first floor of the two-story house at around 9:20 a.m. Three trucks from West Manatee Fire Rescue and one from the Longboat Key Fire Department responded to the call in four minutes, according to a West Manatee Fire news release.
"The cause of the fire is going to be left to be undetermined, but we have an area of origin," said West Manatee Fire Rescue's Capt. Kurt Lathrop. "We can't come up with particular cause of fire because of the damage and so many variables."
The heat from the flames melted the vinyl sidings of nearby homes, according to the news release. Firefighters had to spray the sides of the two homes to keep the fire from spreading. Within an hour, the flames were extinguished.
A burned blue Cadillac sat below a blackened wood porch. The back of the three-bedroom home was destroyed, and half the roof had collapsed.
Neighbors said Zak, who had lived in that home for at least 14 years, is an animal lover who religiously feeds stray cats, birds and squirrels every morning.
On Monday, Zak went to visit Jack and Evelyn Shinn and chatted for a few minutes before she left, according to Evelyn Shinn.
Moments later, just as Jack Shinn settled down with a book, another neighbor called him and told him about the fire, he said. When he looked out the window, he saw Zak standing outside his home, staring at the cloud of black smoke billowing from her house.
"She couldn't save a thing," he said. "I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime."
Zak's next door neighbor, Robert J. Dinkin, said she tried to save her cats.
Dinkin was having breakfast with his wife and a friend visiting from California when Dinkin heard someone yelling outside. When he glanced outside his window he saw smoke.
The Dinkins and their guest, Marilyn Gelber, watched the fire from across the street. Twenty to 30 people gathered in front of the burning home, Robert Dinkin said.
Though smoke did not get into his house, Dinkin said, the yellow vinyl siding on the side of his home drooped from the heat.
Evelyn Shinn said of Zak, "She was in a stupor. She couldn't believe what was going on."
Shinn said a neighbor who is away in Nashville, Tenn., has offered to let Zak stay in his home.
"It's a sad day, to look over your neighbor's house and see it in shambles," she said.
Distributed by the Associated Press
