A 2-year-old girl was reportedly still in a manufactured home in South Fork Trailer Park as it burned Monday morning.
Whether the girl, Alexis Cardwell, was killed or survived the fire was unconfirmed Monday morning.
The fire destroyed the home of Stephanie Pressey and Shane Cardwell who escaped with four of five of their children.
Pressey’s stepfather, Terry Ballweber, returned home before the fire engulfed the home. He had been staying with his stepdaughter for two or three weeks.
Ballweber had been at a friend’s house and returned home late, he said. He had forgotten a key, so rather than wake everyone in the house up knocking on the door, he sat on the front porch drinking a soda waiting for someone to wake up.
“I started smelling smoke and looked over my shoulder,” Ballweber said. Through a window he could see a red glow coming from around the washer and drier. He did not hear the smoke detectors.
“I started pounding really hard,” Ballweber said. “There was no response, so I just kicked the door in.”
By the time the occupants of the home had escaped, “it just went up like a torch,” Ballweber said. That was when someone realized one of the children was still inside the home.
“There was just nothing we could do,” Ballweber said.
Neighbor Mary Pahlman said Cardwell and her father tried to get to the girl.
“The only thing I heard was screaming, ‘Get her out,'” Ken Pahlman, her husband, said. “I looked outside, it was as bright as day.”
Mr. and Mrs. Pahlman both ran out to help, Mrs. Pahlman said. Then she realized her own children were still inside her home next door. She went back inside and got them out.
The Pahlmans’ van, parked next to the burning manufactured home, caught fire. Mr. Pahlman did not know the extent of the damage to the vehicle, but if the firefighters had not arrived when they did, he believes his home would have burned too.
“Once they got here, they got on it and got it under control,” Mr. Pahlman said.
The Pahlmans moved in next door to Cardwell and Pressey just a month ago.
“They made us feel right at home,” Mr. Pahlman said. “They made us feel right at home. They were very nice people. He (Cardwell) was one of the first guys that said welcome here.”
The oldest of the five children is five, Ballweber said. Alexis was nearly three years old. All of the children called him grandpa.
Firefighters responded to the fire at about 4:30 a.m.