(...) According to Sheriff's Deputy Cpl. Rick Ashley, the property owner, Rhudell Thomas, 80, of 156 Florence Drive, was burning some household garbage in a burn barrel located approximately 100 yards behind her residence when sparks set the surrounding grass afire. Stiff winds quickly sent the flames out of control across the property (...) Early arriving units were able to extinguish the grass fire near a fence line, but by the time additional county firefighting equipment arrived, several of the mobile homes were afire. (...) Emphasizing that use of a burn barrel for household garbage is illegal, Ashley issued a written warning citation to Thomas.
According to the article, Thomas agreed not to burn any more garbage, but to arrange to have her garbage picked up by a commercial sanitation service. A firefighter stated that they had responded to fire calls at the site on previous occasions.
