May 17, 1996

Girl saves grandparents from blaze

       Had it not been for a smoke detector, the Mendenhall family might not be alive today.  When a fire broke out in their mobile home before 5 a.m. Wednesday, 6-year-old Lisa Mendenhall was awakened by the alarm’s shriek. She woke up her grandparents, Nancy and Everett Mendenhall, and they escaped safely.  The mobile home at Lot 46 in the Glendale Trailer Park was a total loss, and all the Mendenhall’s clothing and belongings were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $15,000.  The fire left the mobile home a charred shell. “It was like butter melting down,” Nancy Mendenhall said of the blaze. “It upset me bad.”  This is just the latest disaster to strike the family. Their daughter and son-in-law, Brenda and Mark Brown, also live in Glendale. Their trailer, located next door to the Mendenhalls’, was damaged beyond repair by the April 19 tornado forcing the Browns and their children to move to a vacant trailer. “What else could happen?” said Nancy Mendenhall, 51. “Don’t ask that question — I don’t want to know” But she is counting her blessings, knowing the fire could have been much worse.  “I can’t complain; I’m still alive,” she said.  The family’s pets weren’t as fortunate.  Fish in the aquarium, two cats and a pet ferret were killed. Another kitten escaped, burned but alive.  Lisa, who is in kindergarten at Pleasant Grove Elementary School, is proud of the fact that she saved her grandparents.  “She’s just excited, telling everybody what a hero she is,” boasted her proud grandmother.  Once the Mendenhalls escaped from the burning trailer, they awoke neighbors, who called 911. But there was little the White River Township Fire Department could do except prevent the fire from spreading to other mobile homes.  “At that point, the trailer was fully engulfed; there was really nothing to be saved,” said Fire Chief Scott Cassin.  “They probably couldn’t do any better, because when mobile homes go, they go,” Nancy Mendenhall said.  Complicating matters was ammunition stored in the trailer. The ammunition exploded repeatedly in the heat, but it caused no injuries.  There is no fire hydrant in Glendale Trailer Park, so firefighters sprayed water onto the blaze from a 2,000-gallon tanker truck. They also cut through a fence and connected a 500-foot hose to a hydrant in the adjacent Friendly Village Trailer Park to supply water to the fire, Cassin said.  “As far as the trailer park is concerned, we can handle that type of trailer fire with tankered water,” Cassin said. “A hydrant would be nice, but it’s not a necessity.”  The fire was caused by an overloaded electrical circuit.  “It’s old aluminum-style wiring. It doesn’t take much for that stuff to get hot,” Cassin said.  The fire chief said the family’s escape was a “perfect textbook case” of how smoke detectors can save lives.  “Had it not been for the smoke detector, it would have been a totally different outcome,” he said.  Everett Mendenhall, 58, was treated for smoke inhalation.  While clothing and furniture can be replaced, items of sentimental value cannot. Nancy lost a treasured photo of her deceased son, Thomas Mendenhall, who died at age 16 after a car accident in 1984, she said.  The Glendale management is allowing the Mendenhalls to stay in a vacant mobile home until their insurance pays for a replacement trailer. The Johnson County Chapter of the American Red Cross provided emergency food and clothing vouchers, and neighbors and local churches also have donated clothing and furniture.  “I appreciate everything they’ve done,” Nancy Mendenhall said.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

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