Alaska News

Fire in South Anchorage mobile home kills resident

A man was killed in a mobile home fire early Sunday morning in South Anchorage, fire officials say.

A group of teenagers spotted and reported the fire just before 5 a.m. at 9599 Brayton Drive, said Division Chief Bridget Bushue. Firefighters arrived to find a three-bedroom trailer engulfed in flames.

"The windows had blown out. It was going up to the trees, up over the roof," Bushue said. "Other than a small section in the back, the entire trailer was burning."

Firefighters had the fire under control by about 5:20 a.m. Minutes later they found a man -- likely the owner of the trailer -- in one of the bedrooms, Bushue said.

The fire D=department has not publicly identified the man. The trailer was in space No. 444 of the Southwood Manor mobile home park, according to the department.

"To our knowledge he was the only one who lived there ...he was the only occupant that we found there," Bushue said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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"At this point, we believe it to be accidental," Bushue said.

The flames caused heat damage to at least one other trailer, she said. This is the second fire death of the year in Anchorage, according to the department.

October is fire prevention month, Bushue said. With winter approaching, she urged homeowners to make a safety check of their homes, including changing batteries in smoke detectors and checking furnaces.

Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or e-mail khopkins@adn.com.

By KYLE HOPKINS

khopkins@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins is special projects editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He was the lead reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lawless" project and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the ADN and ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. He joined the ADN in 2004 and was also an editor and investigative reporter at KTUU-TV. Email khopkins@adn.com

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