Second fire consumes a vacant mobile home at Cherry Lane Estates

SOMERSET — A second fire has destroyed yet another vacant mobile home at Cherry Lane Estates Saturday. The first fire occurred just shy of eight weeks ago.

No one was hurt in either fire. However, one tenant was displaced from his home because the first fire spread to his trailer.

The fire marshal is involved in an "ongoing investigation" into the first fire this year that destroyed a structure along Gary Lane on May 21. Additionally, he now is looking into the "suspicious" fire of another vacant structure along Wayne Lane that was fully involved when the fire department crew arrived just before 7 a.m. this past weekend, according to Somerset Fire Chief Jim Clark.

A squatter was chased out about two days before the fire, he said, although there may not be a connection. Moreover, the mobile home was not hooked up to any utilities, Clark added.

About five years ago, there were about a dozen vacant mobile homes destroyed by fire determined to be arson. No one was ever charged.

According to Somerset Police Chief Randy Cox in an interview last year, the leads dried up because the arson incidents ended abruptly.

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If these two fires are just the beginning of more someone might get hurt, either a resident or a firefighter, Clark said.

The fire chief used to live at Cherry Lane Estates years ago and he said at that time "it was a wonderful place to live."

Now, not so much. The trailer court has remnants of burned-out structures from the arson incidents of five years ago spread out among occupied mobile homes many sporting toys and outdoor playsets under large leafy trees and freshly mowed yards, some fenced in, others open. The lanes wrapping around their homes are filled with large potholes. Stray cats outnumber the residents.

"People continue to live down there and continue to live around it (the disrepair) because they have nowhere else to go," Clark said.