Broward court back in session Man dies in house fire during Irma
The Broward courthouse reopened Monday after shutting down for 10 days before, during and after Hurricane Irma.
There were no major complications — the doors were open, the lines were moving, and throughout the new building and the old north wing, court was back in session.
Traffic officers were on hand at the intersection of Southeast Third Avenue and Sixth Street to remind drivers to treat the missing traffic light as a fourway stop sign, but
Court Administration spokeswoman Meredith Bush was among a group of workers who stationed themselves at the lobby entrance to answer questions from dozens of residents with business before the court.
The courthouse did not lose power and officials said the damage from the storm was relatively minor — all courtrooms were able to open Monday.
Traffic hearings will be reset and foreclosure sales scheduled to take place during the hiatus will be rescheduled.
rolmeda@SunSentinel. com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda
A Fort Lauderdale man who died in a house fire as Hurricane Irma approached South Florida was remembered as a U.S. Navy veteran whose unique talents as a machinist were invaluable to a yacht repair company in the city.
As winds and rain from Hurricane Irma raged at about 4:50 p.m. Sept. 10, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue pulled up to Barry Freeborn’s home in the 1600 block of Northeast Fifteenth Avenue. Flames were visible inside the duplex located. It’s believed the fire began near a hot water heater in a hallway, according to a fire rescue report.
Detectives who went to the home had to briefly postpone their investigation because the storm’s winds became too strong and they needed to find shelter. The fire’s cause was classified as undetermined, pending results from a state lab of two samples taken from inside the home.
The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office said the cause and manner of Freeborn’s death are not yet found, and it is awaiting toxicology test results. Circumstances surrounding the death do not appear to be suspicious, Fort Lauderdale police said Monday about the open investigation.
For the past decade, Freeborn, 54, worked at All Points Boats in Fort Lauderdale, which calls itself a “superyachts pit stop.”
Chief Executive Officer Jerry Clark said Monday that Freeborn “could fabricate any kind of part necessary. It could be metal parts, mechanical parts, piping flanges. It takes creativity and a very high skill level. We’re talking measurements of a thousandths of an inch in some of these parts.”
Clark said it will be difficult to find someone able to perform the “refined and precise work” that Freeborn did, and it will be hard to replace him in his colleagues’ lives, too. Freeborn was a friend of 20 years of Nate Goodwin, the company president.
“Some of the employees have been working with him for a long, long time,” Clark said. “They were friends, and did things outside the company. He was a real kind-hearted person. He would help anybody. A lot of people liked and respected him here.”
Terry Freeborn of Palm Bay, Fla. said her brother was “a brilliant and funny person who made friends easily.”
Freeborn was born in Louisville, Ky. and is also survived by his parents Eleanor and Larry Freeborn, of Louisville, and two other siblings, Geri Michael of Vero Beach and Larry Freeborn, also in Louisville. He served eight years in the U.S. Navy before moving to Fort Lauderdale in the early 1990s, his sister said.
Services were not yet planned.
ljtrischitta@ sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4233