LAKEWOOD RANCH — Mother Nature was the likely cause of a house fire in Country Club that left a family shaken, but unhurt, earlier this week.
“I am pretty well convinced it was lightning,” Chief Byron Teates of East Manatee Fire Rescue said Thursday, a day after the Stuart Roth home in the 7000 block of Portmarnock Place sustained roughly $700,000 in damage from the 5 p.m. fire.
Roth, founder and president of Center for Faith and Freedom at Lakewood Ranch, was meeting with an insurance adjuster Thursday and was unavailable for comment.
The building reeked of smoke and a half-dozen vehicles belonging to insurance companies and clean-up companies were parked in front.
Between 25 and 30 firefighters and eight pieces of equipment responded to the scene to battle the blaze, which began in the attic, Teates said.
“Anytime you get a fire in an attic it’s about as bad as it can get,” Teates said. “Attic fires are hard to control. You don’t have access. You’re limited as to how to fight it. It took our people a little bit to find the seed of the fire, but they did a good job stopping it.”
It took firefighters 45 minutes to quell the blaze.
“The lightning came through the attic, but there were hot spots all over the place,” Teates said.
“It was a very big home, one of the largest we have been called out to. They could have easily lost this house. It’s all about timing because these things spread quickly.”
Teates, who was at the fire, remembers seeing Roth standing outside of his $1.5 million home as it was on fire.
“He explained to me that this house was his life-long dream and to see smoke pouring out of the eaves was just crushing for him,” Teates said.
Roth later said he didn’t have the strength to talk about the fire.
“I’m sure they can rebuild,” Teates said.
“Unless the structural support is gone, you can rebuild.”
Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal George Ellington will do a final report on the fire soon, Teates said.
The Center for Faith and Freedom, a nonprofit organization, recently received six Telly awards. The competition was judged from 13,000 entries from around the nation.
In a press release, Roth reported that the center’s core program service, Salt and Light Productions, received three awards for its Hope Seeds video production, two awards for its Take Stock in Children video production, and an award for its Child Protection Center video presentation.
“We are dedicated to helping those less fortunate and sometimes overlooked members of society by sharing their stories and testimonies with the community,” Roth said in the press release.
“Our goal is to help inspire and encourage charities by equipping them with the necessary multi-media tools to communicate their message and vision to donors, program recipients and community leaders.”
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