Ex-inmate says arson is source of mobile home blaze
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
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WEST ROCKINGHAM — Volunteer firefighters from Cordova and East Rockingham battled a mobile home blaze for nearly two hours Monday night in the 100 block of Midway Road.
Volunteers were paged out at approximately 8:15 p.m. to the home, located on Midway Road at Little Street. The home was believed to be vacant, but a woman said it was her home. The woman said she had been in prison for some time and the home was to be in the care of her children while she was away. When she was released from prison, the woman said, she had surgery last week and then was expected to move back into the mobile home, which she owns and leases the property on which the trailer sits.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
The power was scheduled to be turned on Tuesday, the woman said. When visiting one day last week, the woman said she’d noticed the front door kicked in. Nothing was taken, she said. The woman said the home was fully furnished, and that she moved the couch to block the front door to help prevent anyone else from unlawful entry.
The move had good intentions, but it had an adverse impact on firefighters attempting to gain entry. Upon arrival, the mobile home was fully engulfed in flames. Volunteers forced their way in and within 27 minutes had extinguished most of the flames. They spent most of the next 90 minutes putting out hotspots and tearing apart the mobile home to ensure the flames were completely out.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
The woman said the home was not insured. She did, however, have a sister who lived nearby able to help. She rejected any notion she burned down the house herself.
“I wouldn’t have burned me and my children out,” the woman insisted.
Personnel with FirstHealth EMS and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene. There was no report of anyone injured. An official cause of the fire was not immediately available.
Firefighters were on scene until about 10:16 p.m.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
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