A man survives a fire in his house but loses nearly everything he owns. The fire happened on Overbrook Avenue in Clearwater Saturday afternoon.
One man was home at the time of the fire and was able to make it out safely. Red Cross helped him find a place to stay because his home has been destroyed.
"Thank god nobody got hurt," Ireatha Poole said, as she looked at her son's scorched home.
“Things can be replaced but his life cannot and god saved him so all that other stuff can be replaced," Poole said.
Poole said her son was helping a stranger outside when his home caught fire.
"He was trying to help somebody, fix somebody's car," Poole said. "He had a candle in there and must be knocked it over or when he opened the door, the wind knocked it or something like that."
Once it started, the assistant fire chief said, the weather only made it worse.
"Fire doubles every 30 seconds in size so with the wind fueling that fire it made it very challenging for our crews," Assistant Fire Chief Larry Williams said.
Williams said the fire department being less than a minute away from the home helped, but it was too late for Poole's son's belongings. He lost so much the day before his birthday.
"He said this is my birthday and my Christmas present," Poole said.
Fire investigators are still looking into the exact cause of the fire.
