![Article Image Alt Text]( "Spices and other cooking remnants show fire damage in the kitchen of the Black Jack Lane home. The family believes the fire may have started near the outlet that a refrigerator was plugged into on the porch.")
Spices and other cooking remnants show fire damage in the kitchen of the Black Jack Lane home. The family believes the fire may have started near the outlet that a refrigerator was plugged into on the porch.
A Hilliard family ponders the future after a fire damaged their home Nov. 16.
Alan Barger was home at 4775 Black Jack Lane when he heard a popping sound coming from the back porch of the doublewide mobile home. The fire broke out after 10 p.m. He thought someone was on the back porch and went to the back door to answer it. Wife Dawn, son Kody and mother-in-law Shirlene Griffin were on their way home from Folkston, Ga.
“When I flung the door open, the brightness caught my vision and to my right, the wall between the refrigerator and the house was engulfed in flames,” Alan Barger told the Record Monday afternoon. The refrigerator was on the back porch.
He called 911 and got his three dogs out of the house. A pot-bellied pig named Charlotte that lives in a pen underneath the home wasn’t harmed.
“The firefighters saved her,” Kody Barger said. “The fire singed the top of her head.” Nassau County Fire Rescue Chief Brady Rigdon said that the fire originated from an electrical outlet a refrigerator was plugged into. Emergency personnel from stations 30, 50 and 60 were on scene. They declined assistance from the American Red Cross, according to Rigdon.
The family is concerned about smoke and water damage to the porch and the master bathroom. The fire also caused holes in areas of the roof. They plan to stay with family as they work on cleaning up the debris and sorting through their belongings. The Bargers are not in need of any clothing or furniture.
“We don’t know if we can fix it or if it will be cheaper to get a used unit to replace it,” Dawn Barger said of the home.
The Bargers have lived in the area since 1998. The mobile home was built in 1985 and was too old to be insured, according to Barger.
Some personal items that can’t be replaced were spared.
“The fire jumped the closet that was packed with family memorabilia,” Dawn Barger said.
“It went over my deceased daughter’s stuff and my son’s baby things and all the stuff from when he was little. That’s my cherished possessions.”
Kody Barger expressed his gratitude to NCFR personnel who arrived that night. “I’d like to say a special thank you to the fire department for helping us out,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that fire has damaged the Bargers’ belongings. In April, Dawn’s 2004 Toyota Tacoma caught fire as it was parked in the yard. The truck was soon replaced with another vehicle.