BOZEMAN — The cause of a January 22 mobile home fire is still under investigation, according to Hyalite Fire Department.
Just after 5:00 AM on Sunday, Jessica Kirkland said her son burst through their doors and alerted her that there was smoke in the house.
“It’s one of the scariest things you will ever have to encounter,” Kirkland said. “I watched the whole side of Addy’s (her daughter) room burst into flames and spread into the living room.”
Kirkland was thankful that her daughter decided to sleep in the living room the night before because when she opened her daughter's door she said it was full of smoke. Her home did have smoke detectors, with batteries; however, they were not working properly.
“They’re pretty sure it was an outlet in my daughter's room, that’s where all the smoke was coming from,” Kirkland said.
Now the family looks to rebuild, and potentially outfit a new mobile home. Kirkland says that she is looking at spending anywhere from $50-90,000. Manager of the Covered Wagon, Jonathon Wierman told MTN that cleaning up the remains, excavation, and—if needed—replacing the main water line will wait until the firefighters finish up their investigation.
Kirkland is thankful everyone made it out safe, but wonders, ‘why me?'.
“We can at the end rebuild and put something back up, but the memories that I lost when this happened, is probably the hardest thing to deal with,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland's mother says that her daughter did not have insurance on the trailer because she could not find a company to insure her.
Kirkland said that she’s heard of a neighbor interested in hosting a benefit concert for the family and there will be some donation jars scattered around town.
If you are interested in helping the Kirkland family, the provided address to send checks to is PO Box 11407 Bozeman, MT, 59719.
