Man jumps from window to escape mobile home blaze
CHERRY TWP — A man was forced to jump out a window Sunday afternoon after the mobile home he was staying at caught fire, authorities said.
No one was injured in the apparent accidental cooking fire about 2:45 p.m., but the home on Moniteau Road in Cherry Township was destroyed.
Three adults and three children were living at the rental home but only one of the occupants was there at the time of the fire.
The man, who is believed to be in his mid-20s, had been cooking eggs on an electric stove and inadvertently turned on a separate burner that had a pot of grease on it, according to fire officials.
He then went to sleep in a bedroom.
“The grease got too hot,” said Matt Wilson, chief of West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department, ”and started the fire.”
The man was awakened by smoke in the trailer, which is about two miles west of Route 308.
“He jumped out the window and called his sister,” Wilson said. “She called 911.”
The man's sister also the lives at the trailer.
West Sunbury firefighters arrived and found smoke in the home and small flames coming out the kitchen window.
Firefighters hit the window with water from a hose line before an attack crew went inside. The blaze was contained within 10 minutes.
The fire, however, spread into the roof, forcing firefighters to rip out the drywall, officials said. A tanker shuttle was used because there are no hydrants in the area.
Wilson called the home “a total loss.”
The owner did not have insurance and none of the tenants had renter's insurance. Their names were not immediately available.
The Butler Chapter of the American Red Cross was notified to assist the tenants.
Assisting the West Sunbury VFD were firefighters from Slippery Rock, Marion Township, North Washington, Harrisville and Eau Claire in Butler County and Clintonville in Venango County.
