Everglades Depot Owner Tackles Fireproofing Challenge

When two chickee huts at the JW Marriott went up in flames on April 8, Jim Besinger was in town from Arizona to certify Bill Odrey of Everglades City as a fireproofer.

Odrey, who was ordered to fireproof his chickee hut at the historic train depot at Everglades City, took notice. When Odrey couldn’t find anyone to do the work, he did what any good entrepreneur would do, he got himself licensed. 

Besinger came to Everglades City expressly to certify Odrey. While he was in the area he was surprised when the chickee huts on the beach went up in flames. But it certainly isn’t anything he hasn’t dealt with before.

"It's just dry like a dry Christmas tree,” Besinger said. "If you've ever seen a video of a Christmas tree go up in flames, these go up every bit as fast and they burn real hot. Someone could get hurt.”

Besinger was surprised to see barbecue grills within feet of chickee huts throughout the picnic area at Residents’ Beach.

“It amazes me that they have charcoal grills within ten feet of these tiki huts,” Besinger said. “If an ember went up and got on that tiki hut, it would go up within minutes. Literally minutes.”

Besinger is the fourth generation of his family's fireproofing business, based out of Mesa, Arizona, Desert Research Institute Incorporated. 

“My great uncle started the company back in 1958,” Besinger said. "He actually invented DRI-ONE, which was developed as a wood preservative. We're here in Florida because there's lots of tiki huts down here, and I'm here with Bill Odrey and we're looking at coming down and seeing if we can't do something about these things burning because they go up very, very quickly. We've got about a 40-year history of treating these tiki huts as far out as the Philippines, Mexico, Acapulco, and South America. We've been very successful with it. So, we thought we'd bring it down here to Florida." 

Odrey wants to be Besinger's Florida distributor. His new company is called Fireproofing Florida.

"I researched it through military actual contacts I had and found him,” Bill Odrey said.

Odrey was shocked when he saw the video of the chickee huts on Marco Beach going up in flames.

"I thought instantly that if they would have been treated, that wouldn’t have happened,” Odrey said. “It never would have happened, or it would have been slowed down.”

“That was a perfect example of what can happen,” Besinger said. "And it's pretty dramatic. These embers fly, you know, and it's windy down here in Florida. And with those embers flying you can get three, or four, or five, or 10 tiki huts close in proximity and they’ll all go. They definitely will all go. Florida's our number one state that we ship to for online sales. And a lot of them are individuals that have tiki huts in their backyards."