Bethany Wheeler was still shaken, but grateful, Monday after her husband and father-in-law barely escaped a trailer home fire just south of Laramie late Friday.
The family thinks the blaze might have been sparked by someone nearby using fireworks.
The fire destroyed Dennis Wheeler’s home and nearly all of his possessions.
He and son Kyle Wheeler, who is Bethany’s husband, made it out with mere moments to spare.
“Quite literally, it was like a scene from a movie,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “As soon we left the trailer, nearly everything caught fire.”
Further information about a possible investigation into the fire wasn’t available Monday from the Laramie fire marshal and Albany County Sheriff’s Office.
Started As Typical Fourth Celebration
The family lives in a mobile home park on Fort Sanders Road, Bethany Wheeler said, adding her husband is in the process of buying the entire property.
On Friday, Wheelers and other families in the park were having a typical Fourth of July celebration, she said.
That included some people shooting off fireworks.
At one point, a friend said that he saw a firework hit Dennis Wheeler’s storage shed.
Bethany said they were winding down when she left to drive a friend home nearby at about 11 p.m.
As she was returning, she saw Dennis Wheeler’s storage shed on fire.
“I just floored it in my car to get down there,” she said. “By the time I got there, the shed was fully engulfed in flames.”
Being right next to the mobile home, it also quickly caught fire.
‘It Felt Like Hours’
By then, Dennis Wheeler had gone inside, locked his door and apparently gone to bed, she said.
She and some neighbors started frantically pounding on his door.
“We couldn’t break it down. We just kept pounding on the door,” she said. “It felt like hours.”
A neighbor finally broke through the door open by repeatedly slamming his body against it, she said. About then, Kyle Wheeler showed up and ran inside to get his father out of the bedroom.
Although he escaped in time, Dennis Wheeler, who is a disabled veteran, lost nearly everything.
“Thankfully, his clothes were salvageable,” Bethany Wheeler said.
Kids Say No More Fireworks
A father and his 8-year-old son were staying in a camper next to Dennis Wheeler’s mobile home, she said. Although the camper was damaged, they weren’t home at the time.
A nearby vehicle also suffered fire damage.
Word of the fire spread quickly across social media, and there has been a steady stream of people coming by to gawk at the burned-out remains, Bethany Williams said.
She said some teenage boys were caught trying to sneak into what’s left of the devastated mobile home.
“I get the curiosity, but you have to respect people’s property,” she said.
Bethany Wheeler said she and her husband’s children, as well as neighbor children, were terrified by the near-fatal fire.
“None of the kids in the park want to celebrate the Fourth with fireworks anymore,” she said. “They don’t even want to use sparklers.”
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
