Times staff
Friday, November 26, 2010
DADE CITY
Fragrance oil warehouse fire smoldering
A fire at a fragrance oil warehouse that began Wednesday night still smoked with occasional spot fires Friday, said Timothy Reardon, training chief for Pasco County Fire Rescue. "There's no real change from yesterday," Reardon said Friday. "There are less spot fires. We are just keeping a perimeter around it." A business called All Natural Botanicals, which had 55-gallon drums of oils used in bath, body and home products, was the only business inside the 30,000-square-foot building, which is at the Dade City Business Center on U.S. 301. The only reported injury was of a Pasco firefighter who suffered a shoulder injury Wednesday. He was treated and released that night, Reardon said. The fire is being fueled by thick insulation between the warehouse walls, which was installed when the industrial park was the Lykes-Pasco citrus packing plant. The business once employed 2,000 people and was the largest citrus processing plant in the world. Park owner Jim Guedry believes the building was built in the 1950s. The citrus company closed in 2004. Reardon expected investigators to be able to get inside the building late Friday, to begin figuring out what caused the fire. A crew was expected to continue watching the building Friday night, in case the fire reignites.
LAND O'LAKES
Third robbery suspect jailed
A third suspect in a pharmacy robbery was arrested on Thanksgiving, authorities said. Mark Anthony Roush, a 28-year-old with a tattoo of the state of Florida underneath his right eye, was arrested at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at his house on Mangrove Drive in Wesley Chapel. He was the last suspect still at large from a Nov. 15 armed robbery of Maxicom Pharmacy on Collier Parkway, where three masked men flashed a knife and a gun and threatened to kill a pharmacy employee if he didn't fetch them prescription pills from a safe. Before hitting the pharmacy, the criminals barged into Cameo Salon and Spa, an upscale salon next door to the pharmacy, shouting for everyone to get on the ground. "Oh, s---," one robber said. "We're in the wrong place!" The three bumped into each other on their way out, then held up the pharmacy. Two of the suspects were arrested that day: Joseph Crain, 40, and Ronney Joe Dixon, 24, who has a history of theft arrests. Crain, Dixon and Roush are charged with armed robbery and remain in the Pasco County jail.
Pasco deaths
A detailed list of obituaries is published in Section B.
