Fire at Rex Hill Mobile Home Park in New Franklin destroys 3 homes

Three mobile homes were destroyed by a fire at a New Franklin mobile home park on Friday.

Before New Franklin firefighters and other responding agencies could put out the blaze, two cats and a dog were killed, family and neighbors of the fire victims said Saturday.

At least one man was taken to Barberton Summa Hospital for treatment. No one died in the fire, the Summit County medical examiner confirmed.

Further details about the fire were not available Saturday from the New Franklin Fire Department.

“It was like a volcano”

Betty Kulcsar, a resident of the Rex Hill Mobile Home Park, said she became aware of the fire while she was folding clothes in her bedroom and her dog started barking.

At first, she said, flames were coming out of the windows of the first mobile home to catch fire, but the fire quickly intensified.

“It was like a volcano,” she said. “The smoke was everywhere – big columns of white smoke.”

The fire spread to houses on either side of the first house to catch fire.

“It continued to burn and explode,” she said.

Several neighbors reported hearing popping noises as the fire spread. On social media, posters from as far away as Wadsworth and Cuyahoga Falls reported being able to see the column of smoke.