Port Manatee Fire Ruled Arson

By Michael Barber, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Feb. 18–PORT MANATEE — A fire that damaged a Port Manatee warehouse early Friday was deliberately set, according to State Fire Marshal’s investigators.

“We did learn that it was a burglary, as well as arson,” said Kevin Shireman, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal. “There were multiple points of origin where the fire started.”

The fire apparently started about 4 a.m. in Warehouse 6, according to Steve Tyndal, senior director of trade development and special projects at Port Manatee.

The warehouse is used by Del Monte Fresh Produce to receive and distribute imported bananas, pineapples, plantains, seasonal melons and vegetables.

No one was injured in the fire and Del Monte estimates 10 percent of the cargo in the warehouse was damaged, according to Tyndal.

“Based on the reports I received, the fire appears to be cosmetic and superficial,” Tyndal said. “There was no structural damage to the building and there was no damage to the operating equipment in the warehouse.”

Shireman couldn’t say Friday evening if there were any suspects in the case or if anything had been stolen from the warehouse.

Warehouse 6 contains 47,000 square feet of chill storage space and 11,000 square feet of office space. Del Monte has occupied the warehouse since 1989, according to information provided by port officials.

The months of November through May are busy months for Port Manatee and Del Monte Fresh Produce.

Del Monte ships in more than 100,000 cases of melons once a week from countries like Guatemala and Costa Rica, which both have summer season conditions now, according to Herald archives.

Del Monte distributes the fruit and vegetables to wholesalers and consumers throughout the Southeast.

Port Manatee, which sits on a 1,100-acre site in north Manatee, contributed more than $2.3 billion to the Manatee County economy when last measured in a 2003 study done by Economic Research Associates, according to Herald archives.

Calls by the Herald to Del Monte’s offices in Miami were not returned Friday.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

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