No one was injured, but the owner lost his uninsured home. Officials warn that rigging the cords to power a residence is dangerous.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published January 15, 2004
[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]
Pasco County Fire Rescue firefighter and EMT Pam Taylor helps collect hoses after a home was destroyed in the Hi-N-Dri Mobile Home Park in Zephyrhills on Wednesday.
ZEPHYRHILLS - With a few cheap wires, Robert Larry Snodgrass thought he temporarily solved a problem with the electric company.
On Wednesday morning, a bigger problem erupted - in a 10-foot wall of flames.
His mobile home, powered with cords and wires running to his neighbor's home, burned down.
Moments before, the retired aircraft maintenance worker had returned to his home in the Hi-N-Dri Mobile Home Park to use the bathroom, taking a break from a weekly gathering over coffee.
Ten minutes later, at 9:30 a.m. back at the clubhouse, he heard the news.
"They adjourned and someone said that a trailer was on fire," he recalled later as county firefighters rolled up hoses around the shell of his mobile home, and neighbors watched from adult tricycles.
"Then they said it was mine."
No one was injured in the fire, but Snodgrass estimated that he lost $6,000. He was not insured.
Snodgrass, 62, and his wife live in a house outside Pittsburgh. He visits the mobile home park outside Zephyrhills for a few months while she remains in Pittsburgh taking care of her brother, he said.
Snodgrass had been late on the mobile home's electricity payments to Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative Inc. The bills accrued while he was away, he said. The power company disconnected his service. And though he has since paid his bills, Snodgrass admitted he has not paid the reinstallation fee.
Snodgrass decided to borrow electricity from his neighbor while he worked out his problems with the electric company, he said.
Pasco County Fire Rescue investigator Brian Johnson agreed with Snodgrass that the rigging job probably was to blame.
The practice is common in the area, particularly among people who are unaware of its dangers, said Joey Wubbena, Dade City's director of safety services.
"They figure if an extension cord will run the drill, it will run the house," Wubbena said.
However, problems start when cords get overloaded and short-circuit, he said. Criminal charges likely would not be brought unless the fire caused a death or if a meter had been rigged, Wubbena said.
The fire caused some water and fire damage to the mobile home of Snodgrass' neighbor, Chris Payne. With no insurance, she said she planned to turn to the American Red Cross for help patching up her broken windows.
"It's the only place I've got," said the 57-year-old native of England and retired New Hampshire resident. Snodgrass had asked to use her electricity, too, but she turned him down.
