May 09--A Madison Heights teenager jumped from her bedroom window to escape the fire that consumed her mobile home.
Brittany Brown, 19, was sleeping when she heard people screaming and smelled smoke.
Brown said she ran to her bedroom doorway and yelled to see if her mother was home. Then she pushed the window air conditioned out of her bedroom window and jumped. She was caught by neighbor Lenny Mohler.
Her home at 105 Oak Leaf Dr. was destroyed by the blaze that started shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Mohler said he had just gotten his daughter off the school bus when a friend driving past said the trailer next door was on fire.
He said he saw Brown trying to get out of the house.
"I jumped up [and] grabbed her and we both came down at the same time," Mohler said.
After helping Brown out of the mobile home, Mohler said he ran around to the back of the house because Brown did not know if her brother still was inside.
Brown's mother, Janet Mays, 51, and her brother Bryan Brown, 14, were headed to a nearby store when the fire started. Roughly 15 minutes after leaving, Mays said she received a call from a neighbor that her home was on fire.
One neighbor, Crystal Campbell, 21, said she saw the smoke coming from the trailer's doorway.
"Then the whole house just blew up, and I called the police," Campbell said.
Amherst County's Department of Public Safety received the first call about the blaze at 4:13 p.m. Monelison Volunteer Fire Department arrived first, followed by Pedlar Volunteer Fire & Rescue, the Amherst Department of Public Safety and the sheriff's deputies.
The fire spread from the mobile home to three propane tanks.
"Our biggest concerns are getting that fire out and keeping the tanks cool," Monelison Fire Chief Ernie Cash said.
There were no reported injuries.
Gary Roakes, Amherst County's public safety director, the fire was caused by faulty electrical wiring in the kitchen. The family had no insurance.
Copyright 2013 - The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.
