Space heater blamed for mobile home fire
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HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — A devastating fire destroys a mobile home in Henderson County, Wednesday night. With frigid temperatures blanketing all of West Tennessee through the rest of the week many people are just trying to stay warm. According to a relative, that is just what the victim of this fire was doing when everything went up in flames. The mobile home was on Law Road in Henderson County. Relatives of the homeowner say he is lucky to be alive. “Our next door neighbor had seen him on the porch and the trailer on fire and helped him get out into the yard,” the victims brother Mike Johnson said. Johnson said his brother, who is disabled, tried putting the fire out but it spread to quickly. “He said he went to the bathroom to get some water, so I guess it started towards the living room,” Johnson said. “He was going back and forth to put it out.” Johnson said his brother was trying to stay warm and had two space heaters in the home. That’s what fire officials think may be to blame. “Watch the space heaters,”Henderson County Fire Department Assistant Chief Eddie Stegall said. “Don’t get them to close to anything, that’s what we think started this fire.” First responders had to battled below freezing temperatures along with the blaze and say it made things a lot more difficult. “You have to watch with trucks freezing up, freezing pumps and freezing hoses,” Assistant Chief Stegall said. Investigators said this is a sad reminder of the risk that comes with certain heaters. “Just to see that he was at home and this can still happen,” Johnson said. “You need to watch your space heaters.” Fire officials say the homeowner was taken to an area hospital suffering from smoke inhalation but he’s expected to be ok.
