A fire incinerated the top two floors of a 6,000-square-foot home Tuesday and firefighters blamed Tidy Island's poor water system for losing much of the home.
Just before noon, emergency responders received a call of a fire at 39 Tidy Island Blvd. Three fire agencies and nine fire trucks responded to the small, private neighborhood.
Capt. Ernie Cave, spokesman for West Manatee Fire Rescue, said all three agencies were stymied when they found only a single hydrant that could pump out barely enough water for one fire truck. Then, they found the neighborhood's "dry hydrant," which could have provided water from a retention pond, broken.
Firefighters were still fighting some small flames three hours after the call as they doused the broken home to keep it cool. No one was injured and the home's owners, listed as George and Ethel Martini by the Manatee County Property Appraiser's Office, were not home at the time of the fire, Cave said. Cave said the two left the home Tuesday morning but were on their way back.
The fire destroyed the second and third levels of the home and the roof. The home was appraised at just more than $1 million, according to property records. Firefighters said the home would be a total loss of close to $2.5 million.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation Tuesday and likely won't be available until late today.
Cave said firefighters had to devote a truck to pumping sea water from a nearby inlet, which stole valuable time and prevented the trucks from having sufficient water when they needed it the most. Cave said Tidy Island will have to fix the broken dry hydrant.
"The big problem that we had was the water supply," Cave said. "The very limited water supply out here has contributed greatly to the loss of this house."
Managers of the the Tidy Island homeowners' association office, which was closed, could not be reached for comment on the neighborhood's hydrants.
