Fires destroy two trailers on St. Helena

Officials have yet to determine the cause of a Wednesday afternoon fire that destroyed an unoccupied mobile home on St. Helena Island.

Firefighters from the Lady's Island-St. Helena Fire District were called at about 2 p.m. to the single-wide trailer on Ephraim Road off Land's End Road after reports of a house fire, and arrived to found black smoke pouring from the mobile home, said Lee Levesque, district spokesman.

The trailer was unoccupied at the time of the blaze, Levesque said. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire but not before the home was rendered uninhabitable due to fire, heat and smoke damage, he said.

The Beaufort County Fire Scene Investigation Team is still investigating the cause of the fire.

A fire about 20 minutes earlier destroyed another unoccupied mobile home about two miles away on Storyteller Road, Levesque said.

Levesque said power had been shut off to that trailer, and that blaze was ruled accidental.

Follow reporter Patrick Donohue at twitter.com/ProtectServeBft.