A Berea trailer fire resulted in tragedy taking the lives of the parents and a child who were inside the trailer on Saturday December 20th, 2014. Berea is a community located in Greenville, SC. This is a heartbreaking story occurring at Christmas – a story that hopefully provide more answers in the days and weeks ahead.  Fortunately, some of the occupants of the trailer were able to get out alive. But the grief, the pain, and the question “Why?” will last for a very long time, if not forever.

Fire investigators have not released any information as to what caused this fire.  So its too early to know what exactly happened.  The media is reporting the basic facts: around 1:00am on Saturday, December 20th, 2014, a fire broke out at a trailer at 525 Hunts Bridge Road Lot 25.  Four occupants were able to escape; but three others were not able to escape and perished in the fire.  The family and community waits for answers. The family will begin the process of healing and trying to come to grips with the loss of their family members.

Mobile home fires present an extreme danger to residents and occupants. Mobile home fire death rates are twice that of normal or “site built” homes.  One issue that can arise in a mobile home fire is “fire spread”.  Obviously, when a fire spreads quickly, more damage and death can ocur.  However, when a fire can be limited to just one room or the room of origin, it allows the occupants more time to escape and a greater chance of survival.

A defective product case, also called a products liability case, looks at whether a product was defective – and if so – did the defect cause personal injury or death? Some questions that occur in a products liability case involve whether there was a specific manufacturing defect with the product that led the product to be dangerous or hazardous? Another questions is: was there a design defect in the product? And another questions is was there a defect in the warning label associated with the product?

This Berea trailer fire is a tragedy and hopefully answers to many questions will come in the near future.