Fire up the conversation starter

If you're the power company, the last place you want an accident to occur is inside the offices of a personal injury law firm.

But that's exactly what happened April 27, when a power line broke and fell on the roof of the law firm of Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice and Purtz in downtown Fort Myers. “It (electrically) arced and caused a fire to start at the north end of my building,” says Jeff Rice, managing partner of the firm.

The fire started at 6:30 p.m., while employees were still in the building, but no one was hurt. “Unfortunately the sprinkler went off, so I've got a ton of smoke and water damage,” Rice says.

It could have been even more unfortunate for Florida Power and Light, in terms of the location. “We were joking with FPL's adjuster that you couldn't have asked for a worse scenario,” Rice chuckled. “They know what business we're in.”

But at this point, there's no talk of lawsuits. “I'm trying to get it resolved as quickly as I can,” Rice says. “We have a lot of clients to keep happy.”