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Mobile home in DeBarry destroyed by fire
FOX 35's Marie Edinger spoke with the home owner who's mobile home in DeBarry burnt down, he says he's "Lucky to be alive".
DEBARY, Fla. - A family in Debary says they’re lucky to be alive after their house caught fire with one homeowner asleep inside.
People in the community told FOX 35 they‘ve been worried about something like this happening for quite some time.
"The fire started on the back side of the house. One of the homeowners was asleep near the front.
A neighbor told FOX35 he heard what he thought sounded like a nail gun, but didn’t think much of it because there’s construction happening down the road. But it got louder, so he looked outside, and came running to pound on the door and wake up the homeowner.
When Don Fuchs did wake up, he said he couldn’t get out at first.
"Opened the back door and a billow of black smoke overwhelmed me," Fuchs said.
He went to the front instead, grabbed his dog, and got out just in time.
"Just heard banging, he recounted. "Like, ‘Bang!’ It was it's almost like a rocket or a missile going off."
He tried to go back for the two Persian cats the family had inside, but the cats didn’t make it. A neighbor, Mary Anne Sigurdson says she saw firemen trying to save the pets.
"They tried to resuscitate the cats and they couldn't."
Firefighters from DeBary, Deland, and Orange City all showed up on the scene.
But they had some obstacles to overcome.
The main road into the neighborhood is under construction, so a detour caused delays.
And the closest fire hydrant to the house was 900 feet away, so firefighters had to spend time connecting hose after hose just to get water on the flames.
There are several bodies of water nearby crews can draw from, but firefighters on scene told FOX 35 that would have taken even longer.
"I'm not criticizing the fire department, don't get me wrong," said Fuchs. "I mean, they did the best they could."
People around the neighborhood had been worried about the fire hydrants – or lack thereof – for a while.
Sigurdson says she’d actually gone to City Council meetings asking for more fire hydrants in the neighborhood.
She plans to keep up that fight.
"I'm amazed that the fire department was able to do what they did, because this has been in our community, our biggest fear," she said.
The Fuchs family says the Red Cross is helping them out in the short-term, and they do have home insurance.