BOONE, N.C. — Fire investigators Wednesday are trying to figure out what caused a deadly mobile home fire in Watauga County.
When firefighters arrived to the trailer fire on Rainbow Trail near Rocky Lane just north of Boone it was only 10 degrees outside.
Firefighters said the bitter cold made their job even more difficult.
Much of the mobile home is destroyed now.
The first firefighters who got to the scene said when they arrived it was engulfed in flames.
By lunchtime, ice covered much of the front of the home, as temperatures only slowly climbed through the teens this morning.
A sheet of ice covered the driveway where firefighters did what they could to bring the fire under control in frigid temperatures.
"I heard a loud boom out from my window. It sounded like thunder. I thought lightning had struck the house or something," said neighbor David Hall.
Firefighters believe the noises coming from the home along Rainbow Trail were tires exploding on this car because of the heat from the fire.
The fire started roughly at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Neighbors said the brother of the woman who lived here tried to reach her through a window but the fire was too much.
"We just saw her house in flames. There was no way anybody could have gotten in there because the whole house was on fire," said neighbor Lisa Ford.
Investigators said one person did die there, but they are waiting on the medical examiner before releasing a name.
Hall knew the woman who lived here and wishes he and others could have done more to save her.
"She was up there in age but she was a very, very sweet lady," said Hall.
The fire chief said as many as 20 firefighters responded to the fire. The responders included firefighters from Boone as well as three different volunteer departments in the area.
WSOC
