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They thought they had beaten a fire,
but the occupants of a Brunswick mobile home destroyed Wednesday now find
themselves homeless.
Richard Brown, 44, and his
girlfriend, Tyisha Green, 25, were in their mobile home on the corner of
Magnolia and Cedar streets with Green's stepfather, Wesley Ward, 73, when a fire
broke out as a result of gas leaking from a small heater attached to a propane
tank.
Brown said he was lying in bed some
time around 9:30 a.m. when he heard a loud explosion that sounded like a bomb
going off in his living room.
"It went 'Boom!' and I jumped up out
of the bed, and I was like, 'What is going on,'" Brown said.
The blast knocked Ward, who Brown
said had connected the heater to the propane tank, to the floor. Ward suffered
minor burns to his face and arm from the explosion, according to Green, but
refused treatment later on by paramedics.
The three occupants of the rented
mobile home, located in Brunswick Mobile Home Park, threw water on the fire,
which they said consumed two couches and shattered a window. Thinking they had
successfully extinguished the fire, they decided to leave.
But minutes later, the Glynn County
Fire Department responded to a call that another fire had broken out at the
trailer.
"I came outside and saw smoke and
thought someone was burning trash, but thought that couldn't be since it's such
a windy day," said Angela Ramsey, 41, a neighbor. "I looked again and saw fire
and went to a neighbor's home who called 911."
Other neighbors said they saw large
flames burning as high as the tall trees above the mobile home and lighting
branches on fire.
According to the county fire
department, firefighters were able to bring the fire under control in about 10
minutes. The department believes the previous fire may not have been completely
put out.
Fire department Capt. Jerome Johnson
estimates the fire caused $7,500 in damage to the mobile home. Half of the
mobile home has been ripped away and the interior is charred throughout.
A car parked adjacent to the mobile
home that belongs to Green was also damaged. A vacant mobile home several feet
from the Brown-Green residence also suffered damage in the fire.
After returning to see smoke coming
from their home, Brown, Green and Ward said they were stunned.
"We thought we had solved the
problem, but evidently we didn't," said Brown, who along with Green, has been
living in the home for just a little more than a year.
The fire took everything they owned,
he said. Clothes, a stereo system, washing machine and other household items
belonging to Brown and Green were burned in the fire.
"We ain't got nothing," said Brown.
"(We) need a place to stay, need to try and get us some clothes and see if we
can get some of our property back."
Fire officials said the owner of the
mobile home park, Scott Markowitz, who lives out of town and could not be
reached, said the property was not insured, but asked an employee who collects
rent to help the three victims apply for Red Cross assistance.
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