Smoky fire damages NE Bend mobile home

A smoky fire damaged a mobile home in northeast Bend Monday evening but a resident was able to escape unhurt, despite the home’s original smoke alarm failing to sound, an official said.

Bend Fire Department crews responded just after 5 p.m. to the reported structure fire at Rock Arbor Villa Mobile Home Park on Northeast Highway 20, Deputy fire Marshal Susie Maniscalco said.

Arriving crews found brown smoke coming from beneath the mobile home and pulled to skirting to reach the fire and quickly knock it down, Maniscalco said.

An elderly woman was home at the time of the fire but managed to get out, though the smoke alarm dating back to the home’s manufacture in the early 1970s failed to activate, the fire official said. The homeowners were receiving disaster aid from the American Red Cross.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. Damages were estimated at $15,000 to the mobile home and $1,000 worth of contents. A total of 15 personnel responded to the fire.

Maniscalco said the fire department wants to ” remind all citizens that working smoke alarms will save lives. If this incident had occurred at night while the residents were asleep, the outcome could have been much worse. ”