ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Over 45 St. Lucie County firefighters and support personnel responded to a commercial building fire Tuesday morning.
Fire rescue crews responded to the 7300 block of US Highway 1 at around 5:30 a.m. and found the structure halfway engulfed in flames.
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The firefighters contained the fire with no damage to any neighboring buildings.
A civilian and a firefighter were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, St. Lucie County Fire Rescue said.
Despite the heavy damage at South East Spas' location in St. Lucie County, the store’s co-owner Phillip Giles is counting his blessings.
“Nobody’s hurt. Like the worst thing that could ever have happened didn’t happen," he said. "This is just plastic and metal that we have to figure out and clean up.”
The store manager at Sky King Fireworks next door said he got there when the fire was still burning.
“I couldn’t describe how hot it was. The ball of fire was just tremendous from the back of the building,” said Nicholas Derrico.
St. Lucie County Fire Rescue said it took tens of thousands of gallons of water to prevent it from spreading to the neighboring firework store.
“Crews immediately went into a defensive operation applying water and aerial streams to the fire,” said Division Chief Donny Stefani.
“You have a pit in your stomach. This is our livelihood. We have year round staff that’s been with us for many years that rely on this so we are very fortunate that the outcome was not catastrophic to our business,” added Derrico.
Unfortunately, South East Spas wasn’t so lucky. The co-owner estimated at least a million in losses.
“It was a sad day. We built this thing since it was a baby, but everybody around us is so supportive," Giles said. "We’re going to fix it—we’re going to turn this into a positive.”
He plans to temporarily sell out of a smaller building on the property as they work to rebuild the warehouse bigger and better.
For these businesses, it seems even in the face of destruction, gratitude is at the forefront.
“This is nothing compared to what could have happened,” said Giles. “Nothing mattered to me more than just making sure my guy was OK.”
“They put so much water on it to prevent that from spreading,” added Derrico. “They are the hometown heroes.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
