Fire at hurricane debris site in St. Pete Beach raises safety, health concerns for residents

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — A fire was seen on top of a large pile of hurricane debris Tuesday night in St. Pete Beach.

People who live steps away from the field at Egan Park, which is now covered in debris, said they called 911 and took pictures of the fire.

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"If we didn't look out the window we would have never even seen it, everybody was sleeping," Joan Welden said.

They said there was a quick response by the fire department. It's not clear what started the fire. But this was too close of a call for them.

"It's scary. We saw the ambers coming up, blowing over toward our building," Greg Nestor said.

The hurricane debris has to go somewhere. These residents said they had no clue the city was planning to store it at the park. The fear is that the pile will grow larger, adding pollutants in the air, and putting their homes and bodies at risk.

"I have several patients that live here and they've been coming to me and you can see it, it's happening, and it's only going to get worse," Nestor said. "This is an older population that lives here and respiratory disease, cardiac disease is going to be an issue, there is no way around it."

Nestor and Welden said they reached out to city leaders about the site, but didn't get far.

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The city has not yet responded to an 8 On Your Side email Wednesday evening asking for a timeline of how long officials think the debris will stay at this site, why this park was chosen as an unloading site, and if they can have a fire truck stationed there to prevent more fire.

"We're all in fear because of another fire starting and our homes burning down and then we have nothing," Welden said. "You go outside and we start coughing and everything and it's just not fair to endanger our health and our homes so we are begging somebody to do something about it."

Welden said she understands the debris needs to get out from in front of people's homes, but she doesn't want her home to have to take on everyone else's debris.

The city said they routed seven large trucks throughout the city and storm debris efforts will continue into the coming weeks and months.