Mobile home park manager criticizes firefighters

In the wake of a fire at the Carefree Mobile Home Park in the North Palm Springs area, the manager of the park is questioning how the Riverside County Fire Department fought the fire.

The fire broke out at a home in the park Tuesday afternoon, and in 40 mph winds quickly spread, destroying the two adjacent homes and damaging another home.

But the way park manager Mercedes Fernandez sees it, the home upwind and next door to the home where the fire started, should have never caught fire.

She said firefighters showed a lack of urgency in preventing the fire from spreading. “I know the wind wasn’t helping, but it makes you question how in the world does the home that’s on the opposite side burn, if we’re telling them, ‘Spray it down, spray it down.’ If they would have sprayed it down, I don’t think it would have burned,” said Fernandez.

The Riverside County Departments Public Information Office released this statement from Division Chief Bill Hunley: “Firefighters did an outstanding job of protecting adjacent exposures. Due to these high winds and limited water supply in this rural area, the potential was certainly there to lose additional structures.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.