Late Tuesday night, Aug. 10, the Beatty Volunteer Fire Department was paged out for a structure fire near U.S. Highway 95 mile marker 62.
When they arrived they found a mobile home and a smaller trailer fully engulfed in flame. The most they could do was knock the fire down with the limited amount of water they could carry while trying to keep the fire from spreading into the trees next to the structure or causing a wildfire. Luckily, there was no wind to spread the blaze.
Resident Don Eurich said he had accidentally knocked an ash tray to the floor on his way to the bathroom in the night, not realizing that there must have been a still-burning cigarette in it, and after about fifteen minutes came out of the bathroom to find the place on fire. Shoeless, he barely escaped with only a couple of shirts he grabbed on his way out. He said he tried to go back in once, but the fire was just too intense.
As his home still burned, a friend showed up to offer him a place to stay.
The fire department was called to the property again Wednesday morning when the smoldering rubble reignited.
Richard Stephens is a freelance reporter living in Beatty.