A fire in a mobile-home park has left two branches of a family homeless and destroyed almost everything they owned.
“The fortunate thing is that nobody was hurt,” said Durango Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Karola Hanks. “A neighbor saw the flames, called 911, then immediately got the woman who lives there out. But both trailers are a total loss. Neither family had insurance.”
The fire took place in the Mountain Vista mobile-home park near Elmore’s Corner. It started on the outside of the first mobile home, which was inhabited by the mother of the family and her two youngest sons.
“With the direction of the wind, it blew through the windows into the house,’ Hanks said, “then blew out the windows on the other side and caught the two gas regulators on fire, which caught the next trailer on fire.”
The second mobile home was inhabited by the woman’s older son and his girlfriend. A Ford Expedition parked near the trailers was damaged on the driver’s side by both radiant heat and flames.
“Another lucky thing is that the brother of the guy who owns the Expedition works at an auto body shop,” Hanks said.
Thursday was the second red flag day in a row, indicating high fire danger.
“We had winds up to 35 mph,” Hanks said. “When that happens, it’s no longer a fuel-driven fire. It’s a wind-driven fire.”
Hanks still is investigating the cause of the fire, but she said she saw no indication it was anything but accidental.
The Red Cross was on the scene, but the family declined the organization’s help. That may change after a few days.
“Sometimes, people just can’t absorb what they’ve lost,” Hanks said. “ ... They keep saying, ‘I’m OK. I don’t need any help.’ But these are hardworking people, and it will still be available if they need it later.”
Upper Pine and Los Pinos fire protection districts and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office also responded.
After the call came in that the second mobile home had caught on fire, there was some concern the fire might spread throughout Mountain Vista, Hanks said.
“I came in through the back entrance to make sure it was clear because I expected the next thing they were going to say was that they were evacuating the trailer park,” she said. “That didn’t happen, only because of the location of the two trailers that caught on fire.”
The National Weather Service isn’t declaring a red flag warning for today because the wind speeds are not expected to reach the threshold of 25 mph or more for a sustained period of three hours or more.
“It’s still going to be breezy, and it’s still going to be dry,” said meteorologist Jim Pringle with the Grand Junction office of the weather service. “I wouldn’t be starting any fires (today), either.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
