BRADY TWP — A fire at Moraine Camplands gutted seven trailers Saturday afternoon as wind-swept flames ignited them one by one to set off a huge blaze.

Ten fire departments were called to put out the blaze that also destroyed a sport utility vehicle, two golf carts, several storage sheds and damaged one additional trailer.

No one was injured. The camper trailers were unoccupied at the time, authorities said.

The state police fire marshal's office is investigating, but a cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

An official damage estimate was not available, but the loss would likely top $150,000, said Rick Black, assistant chief of the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department.

The fire at the campground on Staff Road, about 1½ miles west of Route 8, was reported shortly after 4:30 p.m.

Moraine Camplands maintenance manager John Bluedorn said the blaze began in one trailer and quickly caught hold of the others.

“It started in the one and just spread,” Bluedorn said. “The wind didn't help.”

Most of the more than 800 campers who own trailers and lease lots at the site had not yet returned for the season.

Bob Villella of Pittsburgh, a member of the campground association's board of directors, was at his trailer nearby just above a section of the facility known as “Groundhog County,” where the fire broke out.

“I came out of my trailer to get something out of my truck and saw smoke,” Villella said. “I thought my girlfriend's trailer was on fire.”

Or, he thought, maybe the fire was at the trailer of his girlfriend's sister.

“I was afraid she was in it,” Villella said.

His girlfriend, Stacey McDonald of McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, was not there. However, Stacey's sister, Kelly McDonald of Pittsburgh, was at the campground but she happened to be out using the facility's coin-operated laundry.

Villella ran a short way from his trailer around a bend in the road to get a better look. The trailer on fire appeared to be Kelly's.

He and another camper rushed to help.

“We grabbed garden hoses and tried doing what we could,” he said. Some of the others that were nearby followed suit.

“The other campers on site pitched in,” Bluedorn said. “If not for all the people running around hosing things down, it would have been a lot worse.”

Gusty winds apparently hastened the spread of the blaze by blowing burning leaves under the trailers.

“The fire was leapfrogging. It was super quick, going from trailer to trailer to trailer,” Villella said. “Then a transformer blew. It was hectic.”

He recalled the strange sight of vinyl storage sheds being melted by the fire's intense heat.

“It looked like flowing lava,” Villella said.

Sounds also rang out. Bluedorn heard “a lot of banging,” possibly from propane tanks exploding.

Bluedorn noticed Villella and some of the other campers in back of the burning trailers and yelled for everyone to retreat for safety's sake.

“The way the wind was blowing,” Villella recounted, “I thought the whole place was going to catch fire.”

“The trailers that caught fire are right on top of a hill,” Black said, “so the wind was gusting real good. It was tough.”

The Unionville VFD was first to arrive. Then Prospect. Then Slippery Rock. The companies kept coming. In all, 55 firefighters helped battle the blaze.

There are no hydrants at the campground so tankers had to haul water from a large fishing pond several hundred yards away.

Eventually, the blaze was under control.

“It took a good 40 minutes,” Bluedorn said.

“It seemed like forever,” Villella said.

The aftermath was telltale. Seven trailers badly damaged or destroyed. Charred personal belonging among the scorched debris.

The burned out front half of a Ford Explorer was parked in front of the trailer where the fire apparently started. A golf cart nearby was obliterated. Another cart was barely recognizable.

Blackened bark covered stately trees — oak, poplar, cherry, some of which will have to be cut down, authorities said.

Bluedorn said once the fire was out he began leaving telephone messages for the victims. But by then social media had beaten him to the punch.

“It was all over Facebook the minute it happened,” he said.

Slowly, the affected owners, all from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, made their way to the campground for an inspection. Several arrived Sunday afternoon.

“It looked like the fire came through my back window and destroyed everything inside,” said one man, who did not want to give his name.

Accompanied by his teenage son, the man said he's had a trailer there for 20-plus years. He had only bought the trailer that went up in flames two years ago. It was insured.

He and other owners had questions for Bluedorn, mainly what information was needed for insurance claims and who was responsible for clearing the debris from the lots.

Trooper David Jungling, deputy state fire marshal, meanwhile, spent Sunday examining the scene, taking notes, shooting photographs and interviewing victims and witnesses as part of his investigation.

He was unavailable for comment Sunday and did not return a phone call this morning.

Unionville firefighters were not back at their station until nearly 8:30 p.m. Saturday.