A woman and her ex-husband escaped a burning single-wide mobile home on Sunday night near Thomson.
Mary M. Moss and William Moss, Sr., fled out of the burning home without being injured shortly after 9:30 p.m. when smoke and flames began coming from a rear bedroom
The mobile home, located at 122 Idas Drive in the Green Acres Trailer Park, sustained extensive damages in the rear, while the remainder of the dwelling received both fire, smoke and water damages.
After someone telephoned a 911 emergency dispatcher, it wasn't long before more than a dozen firefighters with the McDuffie County Fire/Rescue Services arrived on the scene to begin extinguishing the flames, which rolled out of a bedroom window.
"I was in the bedroom closet looking for some clothes when I heard something pop and the light went out," Ms. Moss told The McDuffie Mirror at the scene.
Ms. Moss later went into the kitchen and began smelling smoke before alerting her ex-husband to get out of the house, because it was on fire.
"I was asleep at the time," said Mr. Moss. "I had to run out of the house with just my shirt and underwear. I'm just thankful to the Lord that neither one of us got hurt."
Sitting in a car and watching as firefighters battled the fire, Mr. Moss recalled his brother, James Moss, losing his life in a house fire in McDuffie County a few years ago.
"I couldn't do anything except just sit there and think about my brother," said a tearful Mr. Moss. "I remember how he died in a house fire and how close I came to dying the same way."
Assistant Fire Chief Stephen Sewell said the fire is believed to have started in a bedroom closet, most likely from a light fixture when electrical wiring shorted out. The fire is being ruled accidental, Asst. Chief Sewell said.
The trailer, which is owned by Ms Moss' son, William McNair, was insured.
