Update: Cocoa Mobile Home Destroyed By Fire
By Space Coast Daily // June 4, 2012
Residence A 'Total Loss"
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – Two people and a dog escaped a mobile home fire in Cocoa on Monday afternoon that left their residence a total loss.
Lt. Jeffrey Taylor said Brevard County Fire Rescue and Cocoa Fire Department firefighters were called to a reported structure fire at 1435 West King Street, Lot #A0 in Cocoa at 2:44 p.m. Monday.
Firefighters reported seeing a column of smoke from the fire upon leaving their stations several miles away.
Units first arriving found a single-wide mobile home that was about 90 percent engulfed by fire.
Defensive Attack
When all residents of the home were verified to be out of the burning structure, fiefighters initiated a “defensive fire attack” on the home while also preventing the fire from spreading to nearby mobile homes and vegetation.
Two residents who were inside the mobile home said they were “napping” and were alerted to the fire by a neighbor who was frantically banging on the sides of the mobile home.
The mobile home’s owner reported that a third resident was not home when the fire began.
Fire damage to the residence was extensive and the home is considered a complete loss.
It took crews nearly 30 minutes to extinguish the blaze and begin overhaul operations to ensure the fire was extinguished.
Salvage
Firefighters took time to work with the residents to salvage what little property might remain after the fire.
Fire investigators are calling the cause of the fire accidental.
Witness and resident testimony lead them to believe the fire may have started on the front porch of the home when a cigarette was carelessly discarded.
The homeowner told officials that the home is uninsured and did not have working smoke alarms inside.
Taylor said Brevard County Fire Rescue encourages every homeowner to ensure that at least one functioning smoke alarm be installed on each level of the home.
