Volume 25 Issue 25 December 1, 2017
Inside:
Check Out The New El Pescador Restaurant! In Neighborhood Magazine
Remember To View, Like & Share Every Episode Of WCNT-tv On YouTube & Facebook! The Direct-Mail News Magazines Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! For the complete list of the neighborhoods that receive this publication by direct mail in New Tampa (zip code 33647), see page 54!
Bassett Creek Family Happy To Have Survived A Major Home Fire By JOHN C. COTEY
john@ntneighborhoodnews.com David Tassinari was in a panic as he looked up the stairwell to his mother-in-law Wendy’s room. There were flames licking at the ceiling, and smoke pouring down the stairs like a black waterfall. He screamed for her – “Mom, wake up! Wake up!” – as he quickly climbed the stairs. In his haste, he broke his foot before reaching the top, but couldn’t go any further as the smoke filled his lungs. Feeling as if he was ready to pass out, he retreated. His wife Kim screamed for him to get out, and together they ran outside, turned back towards the house, and watched it burn. “It was sheer terror,’’ Kim says. A minute passed, when both noticed a familiar figure walking out of the front door. It was Wendy. “After that minute of horror, thinking we had lost her, when she did come out, nothing else mattered,’’ David said. “Everything burning was just stuff.” A month after the fire destroyed their three-year-old, 3,727-sq.-ft. dream home in the Bassett Creek neighborhood in K-Bar Ranch, the Tassinaris are now renting a home right around the corner. They will rebuild on the same site as their burnt-out former residence, and hope to move into their new home in about 14 months. Kim said the walls will be a different color, the tiles will be different, the layout will be new. It needs to be.
Also Inside This Issue: News, Business & Sports Updates Traffic The Top Topic At Town Hall; Brookron Dr. Resurfacing Coming; Hillsborough County Turns To Pasco For Emergency Services; Wesley Chapel Fall Fest The Best Ever; Wobble 5K Draws Another Big Crowd; Lagoon Fills With Water; New Tampa’s Library Gets New Look; Winter High School Sports Seasons Tipping Off; Plus, Multiple Local Business Features!
Pages 3-40
Neighborhood Magazine
Local Resident Makes A Deal For $18,000; El Pescador Opens To High Marks; Cancer Support Group Flourishes; Plus, More Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes!
Pages 37-52
David Tassinari (pictured) broke his foot during the fire that destroyed his K-Bar Ranch home, burning everything in the garage to a crisp. (Photos: John C. Cotey)
Moving on isn’t easy. Kim has already had multiple nightmares where she wakes up convinced she can smell smoke in the house. David can’t shake the feelings he had that night when he couldn’t reach his mother-in-law, convinced he had left her to die. It’s hard not to replay that night over and over in his head, searching for things he could have done differently. Together, they have been to counseling, although both say things are getting better. “The smell of smoke still bothers me,’’ says Kim, who is 47 and works as medical assistant in Wesley Chapel. “And, when I see a
fire on TV, I turn away or change the channel.” She said one day recently, in their new home, she swore she could still smell the bitterness of the smoke that still pervades their old house. It turned out to be David’s wallet. “I had to buy him a new one,’’ she says. David, 49, who works as an agent for USAA Insurance in Tampa Palms, is hopping around on crutches. He broke his right foot that night climbing the stairs to get to Wendy. He doesn’t remember how, he just knows that when he got outside he could see the bone pushing against his skin. He remembers laying
on the ground outside, his foot propped up on a chair, as firefighters fought to put out the blaze. “There was no stopping it,” David says. Though the personal items lost in the fire don’t matter now, David says, the losses were quite significant. The house still has a pungent burnt odor that hits anyone walking in. The desks and computers in the office at the front of the home look as if they have been coated with a black matte finish. The garage looks like a scene out of Iraq or Afghanistan. See “Fire” on page 4.
‘The Captain,’ Dave Andreychuk, Celebrates His Hockey Hall Induction By JOHN C. COTEY
john@ntneighborhoodnews.com Long-time Hunter’s Green resident and former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk is officially in the National Hockey League (NHL) Hall of Fame. Andreychuk was formally inducted into the Hall on Nov. 13 at the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto, an hour from where he learned to play hockey in Hamilton, Ontario. “Nobody thinks, ‘I want to be a Hall of Famer,’’’ Andreychuk said during his induction speech. “You think about just trying to play in the NHL, just trying to make your team better.” Which is exactly what Andreychuk, who was drafted in 1982 by Buffalo, was able to do. While he played more than 1,600 games during his 23 seasons, and scored an NHL-record 273 career power play goals and 640 goals (14th all-time) overall, it was his experience and leadership that was credited with bringing the Lightning its only Stanley Cup in 2004. A bronze statue of Andreychuk holding the Cup above his head stands outside Amalie
Arena, where the Lightning still play. Hunter’s Green is holding a celebratory party for Andreychuk tonight. During his Hall of Fame speech, “Andy” thanked his friends and family for years of support. A handful of Hunter’s Green residents joined him in Toronto for the Hall of Fame weekend, while others cheered him on at Amalie Arena on Nov. 18, when the Lightning honored him. gave Hunter’s Green residents Sue Andreychuk, Dave Andreychuk, Dr. Tom Andreychuk special thanks to his three Frankfurth, Doug Dunbar, John Loyless, Doug Dunbar, Joe Pequinot and daughters — “You made my Andy Ritter celebrate The Captain’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction at the life a lot better” — and his Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. (Photo courtesy of Andy Ritter) parents Roz and Julian, who attended the induction. He also gave special thanks to his wife, Sue. “She always had a smile on her face,’’ he said. “When I would come home after a game, whether we won or lost, not much changed.”