A fire that burned into the wall of
a local campground's shower building was mostly extinguished when
it caused a leak by melting the solder in copper connections.
The year 2004 was an unusually active hurricane season in the
Keys, but it was tame compared with the 2005 season in which the Lower
Keys weathered four named storms, including Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and
last but by no means least, Wilma. Wilma's winds were significant but
the storm surge that she brought ashore was destructive in many areas
and devastating in some areas in SLVFD's service area. The winds
peaked during the late night of Sunday, October 23rd, and early
morning hours of Monday, October 24th. As the winds subsided about 7
AM on Monday, a storm surge came in from Florida Bay bringing enough
water that the Sugarloaf Station had around two feet of water on the
ground floor. In the photo below, Tanker-10 heads out of the station
on a call into water over the tops of its tires.
During the height of the storm, Sugarloaf Fire Rescue and its
volunteers responded to a structure fire on Cudjoe Key and were still
on scene with that fire when the storm surge passed through. At the
height of the surge, they used the water as a convenient source from
which to draft (i.e., "pump") water in the suppression efforts.
