A dangerous fire that’s already hurt two firefighters is finally close to being extinguished in Valrico, more than seven hours after it started, reports wtsp.com.
At least 127 units have been damaged or destroyed inside Extra Space Storage at State Road 60 and Miller Road.
Dozens of firefighters have been swarming the facility since an ambulance crew spotted the fire just before 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Two firefighters were hurt dealing with the fire. We know one of those firefighters is fine — hit by heat exhaustion, but now released.
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue says the storage units all have a common attic, making it hard to fight. Each one of the 127 storage units has to be cut open and put out individually.
The metal and concrete make the area a furnace, and every new blast of fresh oxygen fuels the fire.
Investigators haven’t added up yet how many units are a total loss, but people have been coming to the facility all morning and leaving with awful news about their belongings and their memories.
The firefighters here tell me this building had no sprinklers. I dug deeper and found property records that showed it was built in 2009, after Florida law started requiring sprinklers in large storage buildings.
Read more of the story here http://on.wtsp.com/1K2PFJ4
