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Fire burns down mobile home, displacing family in East Knox County

Rural/Metro crews responded to yet another major residential fire Wednesday, the fourth such fire in Knox County in less than 72 hours.

A family living in East Knox County is without a place to live Wednesday after yet another major fire in the area claimed their double-wide mobile home.

Rural/Metro crews responded Wednesday morning to a residential fire burning on Smith School Road. The fire consumed the family's mobile home and it was a total loss.

No one was hurt in the fire. Jeffrey Bagwell with Rural/Metro said the cause is still under investigation, but said the resident claimed he had been using a propane heater inside that appeared to have sparked the fire.

Crews said because it happened in a rural section of the county and hydrants weren't readily nearby, getting water to put out the fire was a challenge -- an issue Rural/Metro noted in the other two house fires it responded to the in the past three days.

This fire marks the forth major residential fire to happen in the county in less than 72 hours, with a fire breaking out each day during a period of four consecutive days since late Christmas Eve.

"Around December time frame when the weather turns really cold is when we see an uptick in the number of fires and the number of calls that we get," said Jeff Bagwell with Rural Metro Fire said Tuesday. "Christmas lights are out and on, maybe overloading circuits, faulty extension cords, they all pose a danger."

On the night of Christmas Eve, fire engulfed a West Knoxville home on Frostwood Road. Knoxville fire crews said one person had to be taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation after a fire damaged their home.

A fire engufed a home at 3733 Frostwood Road.

Three people were inside the home when they detected smoke and tried to extinguish the fire with a garden hose.

On Christmas day, crews with Rural Metro Fire were dispatched to battle a fire that engulfed a house in Corryton.

Rural/Metro crews extinguish a first that engulfed a home in Corryton on Christmas.

Crews were able to quickly respond because the fire started within two minutes of the nearest station, but water availability was an issue and crews had to shuttle in water from as far away as two miles.

On Tuesday morning, fire crews responded to a fire on Howell Road in Mascot. Fire crews said, much like the fire on Christmas, the biggest challenge was transporting water to put out the fire because of an absence of fire hydrants in rural parts of the county.

A fire consumed a rural Knox County home in the Mascot community on Dec. 26, 2017.

With more people at home cooking during the holidays and holiday decorations hanging, the chances that a fire will happen increase.

"Any time that you have the combination of a lot of people at home off from work in a situation around family or inside the kitchen, your risk, or the number of fires that you have inside of a kitchen go up," said DJ Corcoran with the Knoxville Fire Department. "Christmas tree fires are always a threat this time of year also but usually that is because people leave them up too long and they get dried out."

Firefighters remind people to always water their Christmas trees and check any holiday lights for faulty wiring.

Having an escape plan in case of a fire and a smoke detector can also be live saving.

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