FORKS – A man who died in a mobile home fire Tuesday morning did not have a fire detector and the quickest exit from the home was blocked, said Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Lenahan.
Randy Goos, 54, died in the blaze, Lenahan confirmed on Thursday.
Goos owned the double-wide, two bedroom mobile home that burned at 93 Zepeda Road, two blocks outside Forks’ southwest boundary.
Goos, who worked occasionally as a logger around Forks, appeared to be trying to crawl out of his trailer by way of the front door, Lenahan said.
That route took him toward the fire’s origin in the livingroom of the trailer.
A better exit – a back door through a laundry room – was blocked by trash and storage items, Lenahan said.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, Lenahan said.
He said a cigarette left on Goos’ furniture or an electrical problem with the television or stereo are likely causes.
Goos was a bit of a recluse around Forks, not well known even to his neighbors, he said.
The fire was reported to Clallam County Fire District No. 1 at 7:09 a.m. by a neighbor.
Three crews of fire fighters fought the blaze and reported that they knocked it down by 9:30 a.m.
The circumstances of Goos’ death highlight the need for smoke detectors and unobstructed escape routes in mobile homes, especially older ones that are more prone to the rapid spread of fire, Lenahan said.
The fatality rate of mobile home fires varies each year, but typically falls between 32 and 50 percent higher than the rate for conventional housing, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In 2005, 345 people died in 17,700 mobile home fires nationwide, according to the department.
