Local 'Idol' watches home go up in flamesOriginally published - 7:58 a.m., May 18, 2007
Updated - 11:17 p.m., May 18, 2007
A fire gutted the Fort Myers house of “American Idol” contestant Vonzell Solomon late Thursday, sending flames and a dark cloud of smoke into the night as she rushed to rouse her neighbors and call for help, authorities said.
Solomon, also known as “Baby V,” escaped the blaze without injury. But her small white dog, Minnie Mouse, died in the fire.
“Vonzell’s doing fine,” the singer’s manager, Jim Osburn, said. Solomon wasn’t at the house Friday morning; he asked reporters to give her privacy, but thanked “everyone for their concern.”
Fire investigators early Friday picked over the remains of the Canton Street house, with its blackened walls and patches of roof reduced to a gummy mass. They said an electrical problem sparked a blaze in the attic that ripped through the house, leaving an estimated $200,000 in damage.
Layers of insulation were piled on the foyer floor, visible through the wide-open front doors. The walls inside were stripped, exposing the frame of the house.
Neighbors strolled by or stood on their lawns, as reporters and news cameras clustered in the unpaved road. One woman declined to talk about the blaze, saying it was too traumatic to discuss.
Laid out in rows of tidy houses with spacious lawns, on a small cluster of parallel streets tucked away from Metro Parkway, the community connected with Solomon. Several neighbors said they voted for her as she climbed toward the final rounds in the show’s fourth season.
“That was the only time I watched ‘American Idol,’” said Isabel Benitez, who lives across Canton Street from the charred house. “I took her as my own.”
Solomon, 23, finished third in the 2005 season and recently released an album titled “My Struggle.” She appeared at a local fundraiser for abused children on Tuesday.
The former postal worker is now an official spokesperson for the United States Postal Service.Hours after they woke to the sight of flashing lights and their street lined with fire trucks, several neighbors said on Friday they were still rattled from the night’s events.
A 39-year-old woman, who declined to give her name, said neighbors gathered around Solomon while firefighters doused the flames, and held her back when she tried to run in and save an SUV in the garage.
“She is just so nice. Every time she drives by, she’s honking and waving,” the woman said. She stood in her doorway and gazed at the investigators walking up and down Solomon’s driveway. “I wonder if they’re going to be able to save it. Doesn’t look like it.”
Later Friday morning, once investigators released the house to Solomon’s representatives, Joyce Hlywka drove by to ask if anyone knew what caused the blaze.
Hlywka said her house backs onto Solomon’s property. She woke up when the fire broke out just before midnight and grabbed a hose to water her screened lanai.
Later, she said, people walked by saying they were looking for a pet dog. “It was pretty scary,” she said.
Heavy on the unless.