UPDATE: Longboat house catches fire - again

Fire struck the same house twice in one day.

Longboat Key Fire Rescue Chief Rich Dickerson confirmed Thursday that the two Key fire stations, along with West Manatee Fire Rescue units, returned to 5060 Gulf of Mexico Drive Wednesday night to put out a second fire, after responding to a fire at the same house about noon that day.

The second fire started in a bedroom in the southeast corner of the structure.

During the second fire, a cleaning crew was in the structure at the time and called 911 when they saw smoke.

Dickerson said a representative from the state’s fire marshal office had checked the house after the first fire, and employees from Grimefighters were given the okay to begin cleaning up the damage from the first fire.

“Four or five employees from the cleaning agency saw smoke in the hallways and we responded again,” Dickerson said. “We believe that a hotspot from the first fire ignited in the second floor trusses or in some air-conditioning ducts.”

Fire officials were on scene until 11 p.m. Wednesday, and traffic was closed again on Gulf of Mexico Drive
because the closest fire hydrant was located across Gulf of Mexico Drive and the fire hose had to be laid on top of the road.

Dickerson said it’s unknown how much damage the fires caused, although the walls, the roof and windows where the fire occurred suffered considerable damage.

The 14,123-square-foot home, which sits on an acre of land on the bay, was built in 2007 and was never lived in. Only a small amount of staging furniture for selling purposes was inside the home.

Longboat Key Partners II LLC purchased the property in December 2003 for $2.2 million, according to the Manatee County property appraiser’s Web site.

Clyde Alstrom, one of the owners of the home who arrived on site while the first fire was being put out, said he and his partners built the home in 2007 and have been trying to sell it ever since.

Listed with Michael Saunders & Co., the home is on the market for $7.2 million.

Alstrom, who said he received two offers on the home recently, said real-estate agents were in the home showing it to clients as early as Tuesday.

The cause of the original fire is still unknown at this time, according to fire officials.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at

[email protected]

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