BY TODD WRIGHT
Miami Herald
The darkness and quiet inside Fire Station No. 2 in Fort Lauderdale Monday night mirrored the pitch-blackless of the city’s streets.
Instead of battling infernos or scrambling to emergencies, Fort Lauderdale firefighters were relegated to watching movies, playing poker and sleeping on the first, long powerless night following one of the worst hurricanes in the county’s history.
A few firefighters stirred as dispatchers occasionally graced the radios with potential action -- a small car fire, several fire alarms and reports of a man drowning -- but most firefighters were tucked in their bunks.
Crews were summoned to about a dozen fire alarms and reports of people smelling smoke, but none panned out. They also helped police nab suspects who tried to loot shoes from a downtown store.
Three small fires on Fort Lauderdale beach proved to be the most exciting action of the night, but each was quelled in a matter of minutes.
Much of the rest of the city was quiet.
The individual fires, which torched a car, concession stand and a room in an abandoned hotel, could be related, said Steve McInerney, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department.
Even the usually amped-up McInerney had to succumb to the quiet of the night, spending much of it sleeping in his office, but still clutching his radio.
He said most departments saw little action because of a tightly enforced curfew and spotty phone service.
''People can’t get through to 911 right now, so that’s a big reason why it’s so quiet,’' he said.
``It’s dark through the whole city so nobody wants to be outside. There’s really no place to go.’'
On a regular weeknight, about 80 firefighters would be on duty in Fort Lauderdale, but extra manpower was called in in anticipation of fires and other problems. About 120 were on high alert Monday night.
At Fire Station No. 2, the extra staff had just as hard a time finding a place to sleep as they did finding a fire to fight. Some crashed on cots in the workout room. Others combined seats in the television room for comfortable resting.
One guest, a visiting firefighter from New York, paced about the kitchen, unable to sleep and wanting to keep busy.
''I am willing to run on anything. Just let me know,’' he said.
But the most important fire call, which took two fire engines to subdue, didn’t come in until about 3 a.m. A room at The Tropic Cay hotel off Windamar Street at the beach just north of Beach Place, was engulfed in flames.
Firefighters quickly responded and doused the blaze in a matter of minutes. Fueled by the winds from the ocean, the fire ravaged the room on the third floor of the building, charring everything inside. McInerney said the hotel fire could have been caused by someone who had broken into the room to find refuge from the cold weather outside and fallen asleep with a candle or cigarette still lit.
But he said the fire could have been related to two smaller fires to a car and a concession stand at Beach Place at 1:45 a.m. No suspects were found near the fires.
''All you need is heat, fuel and oxygen and you got a fire. With these conditions, especially with the open air, you could get some intense fires,’' McInerney said.
Instead, firefighters got a lot of rest.