Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The residents of the South Fork Trailer Park mobile home that burned just before Christmas are now living at another home in the park.
Living in the residence were Katherine Ferrarese; her husband, Lloyd Thompson; and Kathleen Spillman-Seaunier. Ferrarese and Spillman-Seaunier were home at the time of the fire, while Thompson was in Albany.
Katherine Ferrarese credited her dog, Mojo, a Rottweiler-black Labrador cross, with saving her life. He and a cat were the sole survivors of nine pets that lived in the home.
Spillman-Seaunier said she was in the kitchen when the fire started. Ferrarese had been watching a movie and had fallen asleep, she said.
“I went to check the movie she was watching. I sat down to roll a cigarette, and I smelled something,” Spillman-Seaunier said. “It didn’t smell like wood burning. It just smelled funny.”
She went down the hall toward the back bedroom and pushed the door open to check on the cats, she said. She watched as fire rolled out of a socket under a nightstand. Smoked poured out of the room over her head.
Ferrarese awakened and went toward the bathroom, she said. She saw Spillman-Seaunier and the fire.
She said she grabbed Spillman-Seaunier and pushed her out the front door, but Ferrarese stayed behind to try to rescue her cats.
“I wasn’t going to go out without my animals,” Ferrarese said. “They’re not my pets. They’re my babies. They didn’t deserve to die that way.”
At the same time, Mojo was pulling on her, trying to get her to leave, she said. “I was inhaling smoke and flames.” She gave in to the dog, and they got outside.
“It was very scary,” Ferrarese said. “I still have problems going to sleep.”
Thompson said when he got word of the fire, he didn’t know if anyone had survived. He had been staying in Albany where he has worked and was looking for more work, but he was planning to come home that night.
“I got a call from my aunt that my home had burned down,” Thompson said. His aunt told him she didn’t know if the two women were still alive or not.
They lost everything inside their home, Ferrarese said, and seven cats were killed in the fire. One cat and her dog survived.
Fire officials were unable to determine the cause of the fire, reporting that an ashtray and an electrical socket were near the origin of the fire.
Ferrarese is certain the cause of the fire was electrical, she said.
“It was the fuse box. Two of the fuses were totally melted together.
The electrical system in the mobile home had problems, she said. Things couldn’t be plugged in certain places, and they were constantly flipping the breaker switches back on.
She insists that it could not have been a cigarette because no one had been smoking in the back room for several hours.
In their new home, the three have some furniture and possessions that had been in storage, and neighbors have pulled together to bring them blankets, clothes and furniture, Ferrarese said. The Red Cross also has helped out.
They still need a number of items, from trash cans to mops and clothes, she said. The three are now living in space 17. They may be reached at (541) 405-1340.