Fire leaves family homeless

Published 12:00 am Sunday, August 10, 2008

Vidalia — On Saturday afternoon the Vidalia Fire Department was dispatched to a trailer fire on Danny Drive that left one family homeless.

Dudley LeBlanc Jr. said he was at home with his fiancé Sherry McCage and their young daughter when he heard a strange noise.

“It sounded like a pop or a loud snap,” he said. “And (McCage) said ‘I smell something burning baby,’”

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LeBlanc said the noise sounded “electrical.”

By the time LeBlanc walked to the bedroom, where he believed the noise had originated, it was engulfed in flames.

“The whole room was going,” he said. “The smoke almost knocked me out.”

LeBlanc and his family immediately left the trailer.

“We didn’t take anything,” he said, shirtless in front of a neighbor’s trailer.

The only clothes spared were those hung on a line to dry in front of the trailer before the fire started.

The scene drew several neighbors from their trailers and even prompted one to help fight the fire.

One man wearing a John Deere bandana tied around his nose and mouth doused the backside of the trailer with a garden hose while the VPD sprayed the front of the burning structure.

Firemen eventually forced the man to give up his efforts.

LeBlanc said he and his family will stay with his father until he finds a new home.

Vidalia Fire Chief Jack Langston could not be reached for comment.