Punta Gorda man dies after fire is sparked by Helene’s flooding

Hurricane Helene was not kind to Charlotte County, and on Monday night, people are picking up the pieces and grieving the loss of a neighbor.

Helene hit the Windmill Village mobile home park hard, and then, on Friday morning, a massive fire broke out at a man’s home.

The fire department told WINK News they saw him trying to extinguish the flames, but it was too late.

He fell into the fire before passing away at the hospital.

During Hurricane Helene, this water-side community was knee-deep in flooding.

Unfortunately, that, paired with the many driveways full of golf carts and cars, was believed to be the fatal mix for one man in the Windmill Village community.

WINK News reporter Maddie Herron spoke to many neighbors off-camera who knew the man, Tom, and they said his death is too raw to process.

One neighbor said, “This kind of drives it home. I mean, when somebody loses a life, everything else is okay. You know, you can fix it. And this is tragic. I mean, this is the ultimate problem.”

The storm claimed one man’s life after a fire tore through his home in the Windmill Village in Punta Gorda Friday morning.

Lithium-ion batteries and salt water are what some would call “A ticking time bomb.”

A dangerous mix Charlotte County Fire and EMS believe caused this raging fire in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Helene.

“Unfortunately, Tom tried to put it out, and he lost his life doing it,” said the neighbor. “Lithium-ion batteries do not mix with salt water, and everybody’s got lithium batteries, either golf carts, power tools, e-bikes, and, I mean, it’s just a shame, and once they catch on fire, you can’t put them out.”

Sophia Pringle works as a nurse aide down the street. She knew the man as a kind, familiar face in the neighborhood.

“Nobody couldn’t save him. It’s so sad because he was a good man,” said Pringle. “He just was a humble man, and he used to be a go-getter. He didn’t ask nobody for nothing. He just did his own thing for him to lose his life like that. It was sad, devastating.”

Since Helene, the neighborhood continues to face broken boats, cars, and homes, but no damage compares to losing a life.

The state fire marshal is still investigating to determine the exact cause of the fire.

This neighborhood continues to grieve the loss of one of their own, as they themselves have to pick up their own pieces of damage left by the storm.