WESTMINSTER : Mobile Home Lost to Kitchen Fire

A morning fire that apparently started in the kitchen destroyed a mobile home in a trailer park here Friday and damaged the outside of a second, but no one was hurt, officials said.

“On a windy day, this would have been a real mess,” said Westminster Fire Capt. Craig Campbell. “Fortunately, we didn’t have high winds today.”

As it was, the fire destroyed the home of Rafael and Carmen Trejo, who lived at the Westminster Mobile Home Park at 14272 Hoover St. “They lost just about everything--all their clothes, valuables, family albums, everything,” Campbell said.

Sisters Carmen Trejo, 14, and Angie, 13, were watching television when they smelled smoke from the kitchen around 9:25 a.m. and tried to throw some blankets on the spreading fire, fire officials said.

“But it kind of overwhelmed them,” Campbell said. “They weren’t able to control it.”

The parents were not home at the time, and the girls raced outside and called 911, officials said. Firefighters were able to put out the fire in about five minutes.

The fire also began to spread to an adjacent trailer, burning its side, and residents there were still trying to get out valuables when firefighters arrived and rushed them out of the mobile home, said department paramedic Doug Mitchell.

The loss at the Trejo home was estimated at $50,000, and the Red Cross was called to provide temporary housing and assistance. Damage at the home next door was placed at $5,000. Campbell said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.