by Geoff Fox
A discarded cigarette destroyed a mobile home on Orchard Ridge Road in Hancock last Tuesday evening.
According to fire officials, the call came in around 5:45 p.m. for a mobile home fire in the 13,900 block of Orchard Ridge Road. Engine 52 from the Hancock Volunteer Fire Company arrived shortly thereafter and found fire showing from the front and side of a vacant trailer.
Units from surrounding counties were also notified of the fire.
The Maryland Fire Marshal’s Office said a neighbor discovered the fire and that a discarded lit cigarette in a dry grassy area near the trailer ignited the grass and spread to the trailer.
It took 30 firefighters about 10 minutes to get the fire under control.
The fire did an estimated $10,000 damage to the vacant trailer, the Fire Marshal’s Office said.
