Trailer fire under investigation

May 21--UNION -- The Union County Sheriff's Office and SLED are investigating a fire that damaged a trailer and killed a family pet Tuesday afternoon.

Southside Fire Department Public Information Officer Roger Bailey said Wednesday that the department was dispatched Tuesday at 11:56 a.m. to 117 Magnolia Circle, Union in reference to a trailer fire. Bailey said that Southside firefighters called in the Monarch, Buffalo and City of Union fire departments for assistance. He said the Union County EMS and Lockhart Power were also called to the scene.

Bailey said firefighters would remain on the scene for nearly six hours including one hour battling the blaze which he said caused $7,000 worth of damage to the trailer. He said firefighters remained on the scened for the remaining five hours while law enforcement investigated the scene.

Bailey said the trailer was owned by Carroll Sailors and rented by April Simmons Hudson. He said there were two pets -- a puppy and a cat -- in the trailer at the time of the fire and that firefighters were able to rescue the puppy but were unable to save the cat.

Bailey said that neither the people living in the trailer nor the firefighters battling the blaze were injured.

The cause of the fire could not be determined by the firefighters on the scene and so Bailey said law enforcement was called in.

"We could not determine the cause so we called in the sheriff's office which in turn called in SLED for an investigation," Bailey said.

The incident report filed by the sheriff's office states that when deputies arrived on the scene, they spoke with Southside Fire Chief Michael Lancaster who told them that the fire's point of origin may have been a receptacle near the head of a bed in the master bedroom. The deputies then entered the structure in order to take pictures of the damage caused by the fire.

Deputies then spoke with the property owner, Sailors, who told them the structure was thought to be a 2000 model, grey, three bedroom, two bath, single-wide mobile home valued at $17,000. The report states that Sailors told deputies that he did not carry insurance on any of the homes located in his trailer park.

The deputies then spoke with the tenant, Hudson, who said that when she left the residence at 11:50 a.m. to take her child to school everything was fine. Hudson said she dropped her child off at 11:55 a.m. and was on her way to her mother's home when she received a call at 12:05 p.m. from Josh Ham telling her that her home was on fire. She said that Ham had himself received a call at noon from a neighbor telling him of the fire.

Deputies also spoke with Johhn Kingsmore, a witness who the report states was the first on the scene. Kingsmore said when he arrived he saw two individuals in the yard of the residence who appeared to be trying to contact neighbors. He said he also saw heavy black smoke exiting through the broken windows of the home. Kingsmore added that a neighbor had told him that he saw blue smoke about 20 minutes prior to the arrival of the fire trucks. He then gave deputies a written statement.

The deputies then spoke with dispatch and were informed that the original call came in at 11:55 a.m. from Jeremy Shoe, a neighbor. Fire and rescue were then dispatched at that time and arrived on the scene at 12:01 p.m.

Deputies spoke with Shoe by phone and he told them he was returning home and saw the smoke coming from the trailer. Shoe said he went to see where it was coming from and noticed the back windows of the trailer were broken and smoke was coming out of them. He said he called 911 and then contacted Sailor. He said he did not see anyone around the trailer at that time.

The report states Investigator Scott Coffer was contacted by the responding deputies and informed of the situation. Coffer advised Sgt. Jeff Wright to contact SLED and have an arson investigator come to the location to further investigate the incident.

Victims forms were given to both Sailors and Simmons, both of whom were informed that an investigator would be contacted and follow up on the case.

The investigation was continuing as of Wednesday morning.

Charles Warner can be reached at 864-762-4090 or [email protected].

___

(c)2015 The Union Daily Times (Union, S.C.)

Visit The Union Daily Times (Union, S.C.) at uniondailytimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.