JACKSON TOWNSHIP — Jackson Township volunteer firefighters were busy on Friday responding to a vehicle fire in the morning and a house fire that night, after being on standby at the Brown County Fair.
Just before 8 a.m. on Aug. 2, firefighters responded to a vehicle fire on North Street in Helmsburg near the post office.
The 2000 Chevrolet Trailblazer was a total loss, said Jackson Township Fire Chief Glenn Elmore. The owner of the vehicle said she had done laundry earlier and that clothing was still in the car at the time of the fire. Elmore said it appeared the fire originated in the dashboard area.
No one was injured in that fire. Firefighters were on scene for about an hour and a half. A corner of a nearby home also had to be extinguished, Elmore said.
Later in the day, Jackson Township firefighters were on duty at the Brown County Fair, helping to cover the rodeo.
After the fair shut down for the night, a call came in reporting a fire in the 7600 block of Bear Creek Road just after 10 p.m. The caller reported that a mobile home looked to be on fire.
At around 7:30 p.m. smoke had been reported in that area, Elmore said.
When firefighters arrived just before 10:30 p.m. the mobile home was a total loss, smoldering on the ground, Elmore said.
The cause of that fire is still under investigation. The electricity to the home had been shut off. Elmore said his department was still working on contacting the property owners, who live elsewhere. No one was living in the home at the time of the fire, he said.
Injuries were not reported in that blaze. Firefighters were on scene for about three hours making sure the fire was out.
“Being a mobile home, the inside burns first and then the metal falls on top of it. We had to remove a lot of metal to get to where the fire was,” Elmore said.
He estimated the department used about 3,000 gallons of water to put out those flames.
