Fire damages Alvin’s Island on Okaloosa Island

Jan. 31--OKALOOSA ISLAND -- Okaloosa Island firefighters were alerted to a fire Monday night at nearby Alvin's Island souvenir shop by a person banging on the door of their fire station.

The report at 10:14 p.m. was that a car had hit the building and caused a fire, Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Carvalho said, although that wasn't what crews found when they arrived.

"There was no car involved," Carvalho said.

It appears that one end of the building at the northwest intersection of Santa Rosa Boulevard and U.S. Highway 98 caught fire because of an electrical short of some sort, Carvalho said.

"There are florescent lights and wires in a space between the exterior and interior of the building. They're stuffed into the corner there to light up window displays," Carvalho said.

The original call went out as a three-alarm fire, according to Okaloosa Island Capt. Sean Mast, so units from Fort Walton Beach, Mary Esther, Destin and Eglin Air Force Base responded.

Carvalho said the fire took about 20 minutes to knock down and an hour to completely extinguish.

"It was a good knock-down," Carvalho said. "We kept it in check."

The exterior of the building sustained some damage, including two cracked windows and the inside of the building filled with smoke, he said.

"There's no way around that. I don't know the loss there. But there was a lot of smoke in the upper half of the building," Carvalho said.

Firefighters used fans to blow the smoke out of the back door of the building, Carvalho said.

Alvin's Island opened for normal business Tuesday.

"Most of the damage was outside," Manager Adam Lehr said. "We waiting for insurance to come."

He said most of the merchandise was not affected, but there might be some smoke damage to clothing on the first floor.

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