A Wednesday-morning blaze destroyed two trailers, burned tree
branches 30 feet above the ground and brought trailer park
residents out of their homes to gawk.
Gilroy – A Wednesday-morning blaze destroyed two trailers, burned tree branches 30 feet above the ground and brought trailer park residents out of their homes to gawk.
Gilroy Fire Department crews responded to a call at 3:54am at the Twin Palms Mobilehome Park, 8224 Church St., to find two structures engulfed in flames. The fire burned for about 40 minutes before fire crews put it out, and left one trailer without a roof and two walls and the other without an awning, roof or a left wall. Even after fire crews cleared the collapsed roofs, the inside of the partially melted trailers remained an indistinguishable mess of charred items.
“It was huge,” park resident Jose Cruz said of the fire, pointing to a massive pine tree above the trailers that had been burned all the way up on one side.
“All the people were out here,” added resident Diego Gomez, who lived across the small street from the burned trailers.
Despite the trailers being within five feet of other trailers on either side, there was only minimal damage to an awning of one of the neighboring trailers, fire investigator Andy Holiday said. This speaks to the quality response of the fire crews, he added.
“The guys did a good job,” he said, pointing out how close together the trailers are. “They burn faster than a house does. It’s easy (for flames) to jump from one to another.”
Holiday said the trailers were especially quick-burning because they are an old style of trailers, which he called travel trailers, meaning they had originally been intended to be towed behind a truck, but were turned into a more permanent home at the park.
An unidentified man owned one trailer, while the female manager owned the other trailer. Neither owners nor immediate neighbors were at home Wednesday afternoon.
The cause of the fire had not been determined as of Wednesday, but fire crews and Crime Scene Investigators sifted through the rubble all day. Crews have not found evidence that would make the fire suspicious, but also have not ruled out the possibility that the fire was purposefully set, Holiday said.
When fire crews determine the cause, and if they believe the fire was purposely set, they will make a recommendation to police, he said. When this would be done, he could not say Wednesday.
“It could be (Thursday) if things go right,” he said.
