The smell of natural gas coming from 433 Palermo worried neighbor Stephen Sexton enough to go over to the home and call out for his neighbor Mike Dewitt. Sexton hadn’t seen Dewitt for over 24 hours and the smell had him concerned.
On Saturday night at about 10PM, with growing concern about his neighbor, noticing the front door was unlocked, Sexton went into 433 Palermo and started calling out for Dewitt. When he found one person who he knew was no longer alive, he exited the house and called 911.
Lee County EMS and Fort Myers Beach Fire and Rescue responded to the home with hazmat equipment. The owner of the home Mike Dewitt was found by firefighters on the third floor of the house in the shower. A friend of the family, Jack Faler, was found on the first floor in a bedroom in a bed. Faler was a friend of Mike Dewitt’s son and had been working for Dewitt, according to friends we spoke to. All rescue units confirmed a natural gas leak was coming from inside the home.
To be clear there has not been an official determination that the gas leak caused the deaths. The LCSO report released yesterday does not state that and still considers this an active investigation.
Fort Myers Beach Fire and Rescue called in TECO Gas to the scene to locate the gas leak source. TECO Gas utility coordinator Jeremiah Johnson determined a disconnected pool pump exhaust, which led to the second story outdoor pool, was the gas leak source. We reached out to TECO to try to confirm if Johnson meant pool heater and not pool pump. Pool pumps are not powered by gas. TECO would only say “we cannot comment on the report.”
The TECO website states that in its natural state, natural gas is both colorless and odorless. “As a safety precaution, TECO adds an odorant to natural gas to give it a “rotten egg” odor that helps alert people to the presence of natural gas. This unpleasant odor of natural gas is for your protection in the event of a leak. Natural gas may pose a hazard, especially if released in confined spaces. It’s important to be able to identify signs of a natural gas leak, especially the rotten egg-like odor that we add so that you can smell natural gas. You can recognize a natural gas leak in several other ways, including an unusual hissing noise, blowing dirt for no apparent reason, an unusual dry spot in the ground or dead vegetation for no apparent reason, a white cloud, mist, fog or bubbles in standing water, and frozen ground in warm weather.’
After the deaths at 433 Palermo, the questions that are being asked now: Did the gas leak cause the deaths of Dewitt and Faler? Was a gas-powered pool heater in an enclosed structure attached or inside the house? If so, who installed the equipment that way? How did the equipment get disconnected? How did the gas from the pool equipment get into the home?
Contractors we spoke to on Monday tell us it’s not typical to have a gas pool heater inside an enclosed space. According to the Town of Fort Myers Beach, pool equipment could be allowed inside a structure but would need to include proper ventilation and also permitted. The town confirmed a permit was never issued for this home to place any pool equipment inside any structure.
The pool at 433 Palermo is elevated, it’s on the second floor. This layout from the 2020 permit drawings for the pool equipment and heater shows it as being gas and in a screened off area.
433 Palermo received a Certificate of Occupancy from the Town of Fort Myers Beach on October 11, 2022. The contractor for the home was Joe Orlandini. Steve Brockman is listed as the 3rd party private inspector and engineer on the house, according to town of Fort Myers Beach documents.
Dewitt, from Indiana, owned several properties on Fort Myers Beach and was also building the multi-million home on Glock Drive in Fort Myers.
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Don’t be Assholes and do not make assumptions! This is a family member! If this was a family member to some of you making senseless comments would you still be making them? Let the family have some peace. This was a tragic loss which not one of you would understand the loss his family has endured prior to this. He has young kids as well. Do better, try be decent humans the world needs more of that..
Have a look at the drawing here, then look at the back of the house with Google Earth. An enclosure seems to be missing. Why the difference?
Joe Orlandini…enough said!
Do you know Joe? Have you had any dealings with him?
Have you been following any of the news about him? I smell a lawsuit coming.
I hope you have a lawyer because unless u know for sure you should not accuse someone.
The house was just red tagged by the Town. No permit for the pool and no permit for natural gas.
Critical question…
1. Natural / Propane gas leak?
OR
2. Exhaust leak from flue on gas heater ?
The importance of inspections cannot be overstated!
Inspectors insure the safety of the owner, anyone who visits & any future owners of a property.
If a contractor wants to avoid inspections, find one with scruples & integrity .
Mike obtained all the inspections needed.
As to pool heater exhaust, why would a heater be heating now?
Heat pumps used for heating pools transfer heat from the outdoors into the water. Unlike gas heaters that require natural gas or propane, they use heat that is already available and just move it from one place to another, thereby using a cleaner heat via electricity, producing no carbon monoxide.
How does a person get a C of O 13 days after Ian, October 11?
The house was finished before the hurricane!
My guess is that the exhaust from heater which was stated did not vent properly thus carbon monoxide poisoning sounds more logical. Not natural gas.
I agree. If this had been a natural or propane gas leak any slight spark would have created an explosion. Plus someone who is taking a shower would have noticed the rotten egg smell. Carbon Dioxide is odorless and colorless. It’s a good thing the neighbor got out of the house quickly or he could have become a victim.
Wait Jerry, the house was finished before the hurricane? But received a certificate of Occupancy on Oct 11 2022??? Was it untouched by the hurricane. I was here and the truth I know is the town wasn’t even in proper order it get permits two weeks after the storm. Sounds like a fish story.
“Carbon dioxide”??
Carbon *monoxide* is the problem.
And plot thickens when you hear name of the contractor.
Exactly what I was thinking.
The Carbon monoxide detectors should of been going off also .
If this was indeed a natural gas leak, then carbon monoxide detectors would not have detected the leak. cO2 detectors detect cO2 . A separate gas detector is needed to detect natural gas (unburned). The report/teco release is very confusing.
CO2 detectors?
I have CO detectors. 😉
In any event, I’d love to see a statement or PSA from FMBFD about how to protect against gas leaks, since my understanding is most CO detectors do not detect gas leaks. If you’re awake, you’d smell the gas — but asleep, you wouldn’t.
see you next tuesday
Cool, we have a middle-schooler thinking he’s clever.