Fire guts triplewide trailer

By: AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer
Owner and his three dogs uninjured | Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:27 PM PST ∞

MURRIETA ---- Fire gutted a house nestled next to eucalyptus groves in northeastern Murrieta on Thursday afternoon.

No one was injured, authorities said.

Murrieta firefighters responding to a neighbor's call about 2:45 p.m. knocked down the fire in about 30 minutes and stopped it from spreading to nearby trees and hillside brush.

The house, a triplewide mobile home, is located at the end of Shady Circle, a dirt road that connects to Los Alamos Road in a rural area on the eastern end of the city.

Battalion Chief Pat Jennings said the damp conditions helped stop the fire from spreading. Jennings said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

About 4:15 p.m., firefighters were spraying the floor of the house to stamp out any embers. The outside walls and the desert landscaping ---- mainly cacti and plastic pinwheel sunflowers ---- were relatively unscathed but the inside of the home was charred and black.

The house's owner, Steve Prentice, said he was not at home when the fire started. Prentice, who lives there with his three Labrador retrievers, said he was coming home from work when he noticed a column of smoke rising from the chimney.

"I was thinking, that's not good," he said.

When he got closer, he saw flames engulfing the inside of his house. Prentice found out his neighbor, a Murrieta police officer, had called to report the fire on a two-way radio.

Prentice, who had lived in the house for 12 years, said the fire destroyed pictures and automobile records.

"I can't replace the pictures obviously. I'll have to see the DMV about the records," he said.

A neighbor, Steve Lange, who lives on nearby Perry Road, said he was glad the fire didn't spread to the eucalyptus trees. Those trees are especially flammable, Lange said, because they have been infested with lerp psyllids, tiny insects native to Australia that suck sap from eucalyptus leaves.

Lange, who said he had been working at St. Martha's Church, drove home after seeing smoke in the area to make sure his property was OK.

Both Lange and Prentice said they were glad the area was still damp from recent rains.

"It's a good thing it was wet or it would have been spooky," Lange said. "I'm glad it wasn't a couple weeks ago."

Contact Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or e-mail aclaverie@californian.com.