Mid-day blaze, in the middle of town, destroys motor home

Antonio and Susana Herrera got the kind of call no one wants to receive Thursday — that a motor home they had parked beside their building in the 900 block of West Meighan Boulevard was burning.

Gadsden Fire Department got the call at 12:40 p.m. Thursday, Assistant Chief Lecil Harrelson said, to a motor home fire, and dispatched one pumper. As they were pulling out of the station, they saw a large column of heavy black smoke and sent out two more pumpers to the scene. There was a large response to the fire and traffic was impeded for a while in the area.

Harralson said the motor home was fully involved when firefighters arrived. They got the fire under control, but more than half of the motor home — from the front — was gutted by the flames.

The Herrrera family, who live in Gadsden, were glad no one was hurt in the fire. In addition to leaving the motor home a charred hull, the front glass was cracked in their building from the heat of the blaze. A couple of billboards above the motor home were damaged as well.

Susana Herrera said they parked the motor home there trying to sell it. She said they had no idea what could have caused the fire.

Antonio Herrera said they, like the firefighters, were just glad no one was injured. They were unhappy to have lost the motor home, but were looking at the incident in perspective.

"It's just material," Antonio Herrera said of the vehicle.

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This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Motor home blaze controlled before it spreads to nearby building