Smoke Detector Saves Family’s Lives
THEIR HOME WAS DESTROYED
By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — A Sebring woman can credit her home’s smoke detector with saving her and her children’s lives early Thursday morning after her mobile home was destroyed by fire.

The fire occurred at the Valencia Family Mobile Home Park. The mobile home park was described by its manager as one for families, and not one for retired couples.

No one was reported hurt.

Neighbors said it wasn’t long before most of them were awakened around 3 a.m. by heavy flames. Many in the neighborhood of 50-60 residents went outside to watch as DeSoto City volunteer firefighters spent 30 to 45 minutes getting the blaze under control.

Neighbors described the woman as being in her early 20s. Her name wasn’t released.

Neighbors also pointed to a nearby car damaged by the fire as belonging to her. 

DeSoto City Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ben Dubree said initial evidence points to a faulty furnace inside the mobile home. He said the woman who lived in the home saw flames spark soon after hearing her smoke detector go off. She soon got herself and her children out.

The manager of the mobile home park wouldn’t give his own name Thursday morning and said he knew nothing about the fire.

He said it was the first fire that had occurred at the mobile home park as long as he’d managed it.

Next door neighbor Andrew Cook said the woman immediately knocked on his door and woke him up and asked for his help.

“We were already up long before the other neighbors. I moved her car away, but part of it had already caught fire,” Cook said.

Dubree said the state fire marshal had already been called to investigate the fire.

He also said his volunteer fire department received help from the West Sebring Fire Department.

Neighbors said the woman and her children were housed with their family elsewhere in the county.

Sebring Fire Department representatives said they believed it was the first major structural fire of the year.