The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
In the rainy evening of Friday, May 3rd, an unoccupied mobile home was totally destroyed by fire in the east end of the village of Stronghurst at the Rodeffer Mobile Home Park.
Volunteer firemen from Stronghurst found the empty structure fully engulfed around 6:30 p.m. and called for assistance from Biggsville and Raritan fire departments.
Jean Rodeffer, who rents lots to trailer owners, watched the blaze from her window and was happy it was empty and sitting next to a the field on one side and an empty lot on the west.
She said she didn't own any of the trailers but the mobile home on fire was one of four homes, that were owned by the late Bob Hamilton whose funeral was just two days prior.
The State Fire Marshals has not determined the cause of the fire as yet, fire officials reported today, although it looked as if fire was more intense around the hot water heater and furnace area. It took about 20 minutes to get the fire out, Assistant Fire Chief Larry Fox had reported, but they remained threehours dosing out hot spots, with the help of some heavy rains at times which kept the grass from burning or fire spreading.
The trailer home was last occupied by Ray and Annette Boughton, Jean said, who had moved out over two months ago, She recalls the trailer has been there since 1973, forty years, when the Johnsons lived there who were Lorraine Peterson's parents of Stronghurst.
She said the only thing in the trailer that remained was a refrigerator.