Tuesday afternoon fire leaves Double Springs man without a home

DOUBLE SPRINGS    -  Two years after a storm caused a tree to fall on his residence, a Double Springs man is once again without a home after a fire destroyed the camper he was using as a residence beside the structure still damaged from the fallen tree.
Eddie Hill believes he had a gas leak that caused his stove to explode Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 27.
“I was sitting there waiting on my bell peppers (to cook) and the next thing, the whole trailer exploded,” recalled Hill, who was able to escape with only singed hairs on his head.
“It blew the front door out in the yard and the oven door, too,” Hill recalled. “I don’t know how I lived through it, to be honest with you.”
The Double Springs Fire Department received a call around 12:04 p.m. of a structure fire endangering another structure, noted Lt. Erik Gilbreath.
Double Springs rolled to the mobile home park where the incident occurred at 400 Highway 33 Lot 15, and received assistance on the scene from Central and Ashridge fire departments, in what firefighters described as a total loss.
Double Springs Fire Chief Brandon Lewis learned on the scene that Hill informed him he may have had a gas leak and, when he opened the stove to check on his food, it blew up.
“It singed his hair a little bit, but, other than that, he was OK,” Lewis stated.
The camper where Hill was living was consumed by fire that began spreading into his former residence next door--a singlewide manufactured home that still had a blue tarp over the top from where a tree had fallen into it two years ago.
Firefighters applied about 1,000 gallons of water onto the blaze, using the capacity of water from their trucks, according to Gilbreath.
Ironically, the right end of the former residence that had received heavy damage from the fallen tree, was also the same side of the structure that was damaged by fire from the blazing camper only a few feet away, authorities on the scene indicated.
“It already had damage from that storm,” Gilbreath said. “So it’s kind of hard to gauge what was damaged during the storm and what was burned.”
Firefighters had the blaze extinguished and were back in service around 12:50 p.m., according to Gilbreath.
Alabama Power was contacted due to electricity being connected to the camper, according to Gilbreath.
The American Red Cross has also been contacted to provide assistance for Hill, who stated they gave him a gift card, but that he was still without a place to live.
“I lost everything I owned,” Hill stated with tears in his eyes.
Hill’s uncle, Murphy Moody, has asked for anyone who can help Hill to call (205) 489-6071 to help Hill get back on his feet.
“I hate it any time someone loses their residence,” Lewis stated. “The main thing right now is be careful with propane. That is what powered his stove.”
“It hate that it happens, but especially when it’s cold and everything,” Gilbreath added.
Moody noted he had a building available for Hill to stay in the aftermath of the fire, that had a heat source, but no water.
Authorities were unsure if a gas leak had actually occurred to cause the explosion, according to Double Springs fire officials.  The cause of the fire has not been determined, according to Gilbreath.