Rantoul trailer catches fire twice within 12 hours

RANTOUL, Ill. (WCIA) — The Rantoul Fire Department and other investigative agencies are looking into a pair of fires that broke out in the same trailer within 12 hours of each other. They are also looking into a possible connection to a fire next door three weeks earlier.

The fires happened on Mahoning Drive in the northeast part of the city. 13 Mahoning caught fire on Feb. 8 and was destroyed, killing two cats and displacing the person living there. 14 Mahoning was damaged enough by the fire that the person living there was also displaced.

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On Monday, Chief Chad Smith said, firefighters responded to 14 Mahoning for a fire in that trailer. Firefighters were dispatched at 9:41 p.m. and they found fire and smoke coming from a bedroom.

14 Mahoning was still unoccupied, so no one was hurt, and the trailer was not connected to utilities. Firefighters spent two-and-a-half hours on scene to extinguish the fire and investigators started looking into the cause.

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Smith said he stopped by 14 Mahoning around 8 a.m. on Tuesday and found nothing out of the ordinary. 90 minutes later, a fire started in a different part of the trailer. Firefighters spent a further hour and 40 minutes on scene to extinguish that fire.

The Rantoul Fire and Police Departments are investigating all three fires, along with the Champaign County Sheriff’s Investigative Fire Team and the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Smith said they have not determined if there is a connection between the three fires.

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