Small Town News

Family storage destroyed, but home is spared

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A vacant mobile home outside of Willcox on West Torres Lane was destroyed by fire Thursday afternoon.

The Cochise County Sheriff's Department received the call at about 1:10 p.m. Oct. 22, said spokeswoman Carol Capas.

The owner, Charles Rose, told deputies that he had been burning weeds right next to the trailer, and thought "he had put the fire out when he went to lunch but must not have," said Capas.

"Charlie wasn't gone 10 minutes before the fire started," said Commander A.V. Reid with Willcox Rural Fire.

"A dust devil or something like that must have come up and carried the fire under the trailer."

Rose told him that the trailer in the 3100 block of West Torres Lane had been vacant for about six years, and was being used as storage, but that "most everything was out of it," he said.

It took "10 or 12 minutes for the structure to go completely down," and about an hour and 15 minutes for the fire to be completely cooled down, said Reid, adding that his department used about 3,000 gallons of water.

Firefighters wet down the area 15 feet around the trailer, so "there was no danger to anything around it," he said.

"We appreciate the city's coming out and helping us," Reid told the Range News Monday.



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© 2010 Arizona Range News Willcox, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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