Crews face Century 21 fire with no water or power

Fire crews responded to a fire at Century 21 with no water or power.

The fire started Wednesday morning. No one was hurt in the fire, but Iona Fire Division Chief John Wisdom confirmed that the lack of water inside the park caused a delay in the operation.

The community’s hydrants are privately owned, not Lee County maintained. According to Wisdom, fire crews have standard operating procedures in place to address fighting fires in areas without water.

In this case, crews ran a firehose from McGregor Boulevard more than 2,000 feet to Century 21.

“We were made aware of that situation by the property owner before they shut the water off. So our crews were not caught off guard,” Wisdom said, “There are a couple of other locations, one in particular at the north end of our district and one on the east end as you head towards U.S. 41 that we know going into it that we’re going to have to have some special moves to get the water supply.”

Although the community is without water and power, Iona Fire said the cause of the fire was something akin to an electrical event. Their team is searching for more details.

WINK News has reached out to other departments to find out how firefighters, cities, counties and communities collaborate to mitigate challenges posed by lack of water and power.