Cal Fire Madera fire crews responded to a fire at the Madera Mobile Home and RV Park that destroyed three trailers.
City of Madera Station 58, which is less than a mile from the mobile home park, responded to the fire in less than two minutes on Saturday at about 3 p.m.
“We had resources there very quickly,” said Battalion Chief Andrew Durrell. “However, there were embers that caught fire to 2.5 acres of vegetation.”
Durrell said Water Tender No. 9 and No. 3 were also called to the scene. Along with Station 58, engines from No. 57, No. 56, No. 1 and No. 19 also responded to the fire with another battalion chief.
“There was a bigger response because of the vegetation that caught fire,” Durrell said.
Two residents were taken to the hospital for second and third degree burns, which are considered critical injuries.
However, it could have been much worse if not for the action of two residents of the park. Isabel Solis and her son Jonathan helped the two residents, a man and a woman, out of their trailer.
The man, a U.S. Army veteran was heard yelling for help. Jonathan raced to the trailer and pulled him out. Solis went into the trailer to pull the woman out of the trailer.
Unfortunately, as this was happening, Solis’ trailer caught fire, and was burnt to the ground, along with their car.
“Our priority is life saving over buildings,” Durrell said. “We had some personnel render aid until the paramedics came. Crews extinguished the fire rather quickly.”
Not only did the firefighters have to deal with the trailers, embers from the fire caught the trash dumpsters on fire and a field across the way.
But, because of work done on the field, Durrell praised the property owner.
“They disced that field to allow the fire to stop on its own with minimal help from the fire service,” he said. “They kept the weeds at a minimum that kept the fire from spreading. That fire could have gone to SR 99 and impacted more homes or businesses. They did a good job to maintain the field and the weeds. From the fire service side, it’s something we tell people to mitigate the weeds from their property. It allowed us to keep the fire as small as we could and keep it from going anywhere else. They did the right thing.”
Unfortunately, three families lost their homes, and everything in it. The two victims are recovering from burns to their face, hands and body.