Fire destroys man’s home days before wedding; STGnews photo gallery

St. George Fire Department works to extinguish a fire at Hillside Palms RV and Mobile Home Park on Thursday. St. George, Utah, Dec. 12, 2013 | Photo by Michael Flynn, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – A man was left homeless after his mobile home was destroyed in a fire Thursday night at the Hillside Palms RV and Mobile Home Park in St. George.

Bill Parsons, the owner of the mobile home, said that he was at his church making wedding arrangements when the fire broke out.

“I’m supposed to be getting married in nine days,” Parsons said. “I’ve got no place to live now.”

The fire started sometime before 5:30 p.m. when a neighbor, Dudley White, noticed smoke coming from the roof of the home. White said that he was dropping mail into the mailbox when he noticed the smoke.

“I ran over here and told my wife to call 911,” White said. “I ran back over there and started banging on his door, making sure he wasn’t in there sleeping because it was already evident. It was saturated with smoke.”

The smoke gave way to open flames just as firefighters arrived, White said.

“When we arrived on scene there was smoke coming from the top of the trailer,” St. George Fire Department Captain Rick Nelson said. “Within about 30 seconds of us being on scene (flames) broke through the roof in the back side.”

Fire crews entered the burning structure, Nelson said, and found that nobody was inside.

Nobody was injured in the blaze, Nelson said, but the damage to the home was significant.

“It was extensive,” Nelson said of the damage. “I would say it’s pretty much totaled.”

Investigators had not yet determined the cause of the fire as this report was obtained.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.

St. George Fire Department works to extinguish a fire at  Hillside Palms RV and Mobile Home Park on Thursday. St. George, Utah, Dec. 12, 2013 | Photo by Michael Flynn, St. George News
St. George Fire Department works to extinguish a fire at Hillside Palms RV and Mobile Home Park on Thursday. St. George, Utah, Dec. 12, 2013 | Photo by Michael Flynn, St. George News

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8 Comments

  • will December 12, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    I was there! I was just getting off work and saw the smoke and ran over to make sure everyone was OK. I was helping dudly white! Crazy. Hope everything for the owner works out.

    • Joanna December 13, 2013 at 1:58 pm

      Hey Will, it’s nice to know that citizens like you were there to help. As bad as is was, thank goodness there was no loss of life. We can always replace “things”, eh?

  • Joanna December 13, 2013 at 9:07 am

    Oh dear how awful. StgNews, can you find out if anyone has set up a fund that we can donate to, to help this man get back on his feet and maybe avoid ruining his wedding plans?

  • jacob December 13, 2013 at 12:04 pm

    Joanna my thoughts exactly let us know if there is fund set up so that we can this owner out

  • Betty December 13, 2013 at 8:54 pm

    Hopefull his beloved wife to be has a nicer trailer & they can collect the insurance and have a nice honeymoon at the Motel 6.

    • Laura December 13, 2013 at 10:48 pm

      Sure! Let’s make fun of people who don’t have as much money or material items as us! That’s so much fun! News flash: don’t be a bitch.

    • JamesB December 14, 2013 at 1:20 pm

      Betty, your kindness is inspiring to all of us.

  • Lisa Wilkins December 16, 2013 at 11:59 am

    I am Bill Parsons wife to be. There is no fund set up at this time, not even sure how to do that, but your thoughts are very appreciated. We have a friends trailer to live in for a couple of months, but we will need to get a apartment after that, so if anyone knows of anything out there that would be great. All of our food was destroyed in the fire. We were able to savage some of Bill’s cloths so all we need right now is just funds to get the new trailer stocked again. God is with us and we will get back up again. Thank you all for your thoughts.

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