Mobile home lost to Wednesday morning fire in West Liberty
WEST LIBERTY — A fire chief reported no injuries when a mobile home was lost to a fire Wednesday morning, Jan. 21.
The homeowner was woken up by his dog jumping on him in bed before he smelled smoke and fled the building, according to Ryan Hanchosky, chief of Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team.
The homeowner sat in his vehicle to get warm after evacuating.
Firefighters battled the flames in slippery, cold conditions, but Hanchosky said the atmosphere wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for winter.
“No one fell, (and) everyone used caution,” Hanchosky said.
Crews were dispatched at 5:39 a.m. for the mobile home fire in the 100 block of Smith Road. Crews were still on scene around 7:15 a.m. when temperatures were 10 degrees.
Hanchosky said the homeowner told him the furnace had been having a problem for the last two to three weeks, which could have been the cause of the fire.
The two-alarm response brought many tanker trucks to the scene since there was not a water source nearby. Hanchosky said if the structure were larger, crews may have had to go back and forth from Moraine State Park or the hydrants in Slippery Rock to the scene.
From Butler County, Prospect, West Sunbury and Portersville-Muddy Creek volunteer fire departments; Unionville and Harrisville volunteer fire companies and Butler Township Fire District; Mercer County’s Grove City Volunteer Fire Department and Pine Township Volunteer Fire Company; Venango County’s Clintonville Volunteer Fire Department and Lawrence County’s Scott Township Volunteer Fire Department responded.
