ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg Fire Rescue says they used their boat to pump seawater from the bay to help battle the University of South Florida marine science lab fire that happened over the weekend, which may have been started by lightning.
The school suspects that the fire on Saturday was caused by a lightning strike but is still waiting for the official determination from the state fire marshal.
Video from the St. Pete Fire Rescue boat shows the USF marine science lab on fire as it arrived to help supply water.
In the video, as the fire boat gets closer, part of the roof can be seen collapsing.
Photos show that boat pumping seawater from the bay to a fire truck to help suppress the large fire.
Deputy Chief Brett Ciskoski says because of the marine science lab’s location is on a peninsula, there was a limited amount of fire hydrants. The building was built in 1939 as a training center for merchant marines during World War II, the school said.
“So three hydrants for five elevated streams. We, ideally, we would like more water supply sources,” Ciskoski said. “But our incident commanders did an excellent job. So their communication early on, identifying the water sources, identifying the need for the fireboat and then positioning of apparatuses was very critical.”
Ciskoski says another fire engine was also pumping seawater from the bay.
Photo from witness Kevin Elliott
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue’s hazardous materials technician Lt. Dan Gulick says his crew was in charge of identifying the hundreds of chemicals being burned.
He also forecasted where that toxic plume of smoke was going to blow and had the Coast Guard base evacuated.
“Plotting a weather plume for where the chemicals through the smoke might be going, out to about three hours is where we plotted,” Gulick said. “We were in charge of coordinating evacuations with the Coast Guard base.”
Gulick says that had the winds shifted and blown the plume toward downtown, he would’ve had to evacuate the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer game. But weather conditions were on their side.
St. Pete Fire Rescue confirmed that USF campus police called in the fire at 5:13 p.m.
It took crews about three-and-a-half hours to get the fire under control.
USF says security footage captured a lightning strike.
Ciskoski says the lab’s thick walls could’ve contained the fire for a while before anyone noticed.
St. Pete Fire Rescue
“So the storm rolled in around 3 (p.m.) and, hypothetically, if the lightning were to be the cause, then that fire would have been burning for a couple hours before notification, which would contribute to rapid fire spread and the significant amount of fire that our crews encountered when on scene,” he said.
He said it looked like most of the roofing materials is what burned.
Council member Gina Driscoll says it appears the lightning strike was the probable cause of the fire. The marine science lab is located in Driscoll’s district.
She called the St. Pete Fire Response, along with crews from surrounding cities, heroic.
“Because of the planning of our fire department, because they look for situations like this before they happen, they knew exactly what to do, and they were able to not only get this fire under control, but keep it from harming other buildings that are right next to it,” Driscoll said.
Ciskoski says he is proud of the nearly 200 firefighters who responded to the extremely large fire.
“So there was no injuries to civilians or firefighters. Our crews did an excellent job,” he said. “They fell back on their training. Their communication by the incident commanders and the crews on scene was excellent.”
St. Pete Fire Rescue says the boat has been used to fight fires on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and docks and boats at sea that’ve caught on fire.