OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A woman was barely able to escape before flames destroyed her mobile home in Susquehanna County last week. Now, she and her family are displaced just before the holidays.
The woman was asleep in her bed when the fire started, and by the time she yelled for her son in another room, the flames were spreading quickly. Neighbors say the house went up so fast that they worried the woman didn't get out in time.
Rhonda Adams screamed to neighbors as flames were shooting from a mobile home near Susquehanna on Friday night. A woman lived there with her son and granddaughters, and when neighbors saw what was happening, they feared the worst.
"We all ran outside and started running towards the fire to see what was going on, and that's when the fire trucks showed up, and then we heard someone screaming, 'she's out.' We knew the only person that was in there was safe," Adams said.
All that's left of the trailer is a charred frame and all the family's belongings that were left inside. The woman's son says the whole thing happened so fast, and he and his mother were lucky to escape. The girls weren't home when the fire started.
"I got her out of there. I said, 'let's go!' Once I got her out of there once, she went back in there to fight the fire again. Like four times, it took me to get her out. After that, it was in flames and hot and crazy. Everything was melting," Robert Theobald said.
"They did get her out. She was OK. Everything but her shoes is what they kept saying. She's alive without her shoes, everyone kept saying. There was just so much crackling and noise, we were afraid other trailers were going to catch on fire because these trailers can go up so easily. Unfortunately, she lost everything in it," said Adams.
Neighbors tell Newswatch 16 they hate to see a fire here any time of the year, not just during the holidays, but praise the fire department for getting here and acting so quickly.
"I knew there was kids in there, and with the holidays coming and everything, it's just a bad scene all the way around," Raymond Osterhout said.
"We lost everything, but we're out. That's the most important part," Theobald added.
The Red Cross is helping the family after the fire. Neighbors say they are trying to help gather clothes and presents for the girls, as this is a difficult time just before the holidays.