PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — April 15, 1999, the city of Port St. Lucie was in flames.
More than 40 homes were destroyed, but miraculously no one was killed.
Inside Fire Station 15 in Fort Pierce, there is a picture of a moment frozen in time. It is of a raging inferno, where you can see a tunnel of smoke across a busy road.
Lt. Chris Longo snapped the photo and not long after, had to escape the flames.
“We had to hide under our truck, because it advanced and went over the top of us," Longo said. "We hid under the truck and it literally caught some of the areas of the truck and fire we literally had to put our own truck out."
In an area roughly bordered by Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike, more than 40 homes were destroyed.
Joel Dramis’ home was nearly one of them.
“I remember my wife calling me saying there was a lot of smoke, do I know what’s going on?" he said.
Dramis, the current Port St. Lucie building director said his neighbor, a Broward County fire chief on his off day, came to the rescue.
“He went with some five gallon buckets, took water out of my pool, threw it up against my house and it literally stopped 12 inches from the back of my house," Dramis said.
The biggest problem at the time, there weren’t enough fire hydrants in the area. So, to improve the infrastructure, special assessment districts were set up, and hundreds of millions of dollars was invested by the city, and its residents in water and sewer services.
“Really, I think it drove the community and city council at the time to recognize how they want the city to be built out," City Utility Director Kevin Matyjaszek said.
There are now more than 5,800 hydrants in the city and that number is climbing as the city continues to grow.
“In addition to all the infrastructure, lines and hydrants, we have millions of gallons of water stored at various sties throughout the city," Matyjaszek said.
More hydrants, and fewer vacant lots also reducing the risk for a repeat of what we saw a quarter century ago.
