Peter Thompson/Nevada Appeal Cameron Williams, 3, of Carson City, stands in front of his family's fifth-wheel trailer at Camp N Town on North Carson Street on Saturday afternoon.
A fifth-wheel stationed at Camp N Town on North Carson Street literally went up in flames minutes after a fire started inside the trailer Saturday afternoon, gutting one family's home but giving them just enough time to escape unharmed.
As firefighters raked through piles of smoldering clothes and scorched belongings, owner Herman Lowe, who lives in the trailer with his niece and her two children, lamented. He says he had only two more payments left to make on the trailer and then it would be his.
"$600," he said with a huge, unbelieving sigh. "That's how much I owed."
The fire started when Lowe's niece's children began playing with a propane lighter, according to firefighter Phil Hernandez. The blaze exploded and consumed the trailer in minutes. A nearby tree was also singed and the fire nearly spread.
"A day like this with this warm wind - it could have been much worse," Hernandez said. "Those trailers are built to be towed so they make them really light," he said. "But it just makes them burn quicker."
Neighbor Karen Meyer was across the street reading a newspaper when she heard the sound of glass popping as the fire started. She ran over to the trailer and grabbed the children from Lowe and rushed them to safety.
"It went up just like that," said Meyer. "The whole fire lasted less than 5 minutes."
The children, 4-year-old Adaisha Williams and her brother, 3-year-old Cameron Williams, stood barefoot as they watched the firefighters pull down the sides of what once was their home.
"Where are we going to go?" asked Adaisha, who also expressed concern over the loss of her cat, Shay-Shay, the fire's only known casualty.
LaDonna Miller, the children's mother, had hoped to be celebrating her 28th birthday. Instead, she wondered where she was going to be spending the night.
She put the kids in the back seat of her car and waited for the Red Cross to arrive.
n Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.
American Red Cross
Sierra-Nevada Chapter
1190 Corporate Blvd.
Reno, NV 89502-2330
775-856-1000
http://www.nevada.redcross.org