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Residents at mobile home park lost everything in propane warehouse fire

'I lost everything, my money, my things, everything.'

SEBRING, Fla. — Alberto Garcia has lived at the Sunset Manor Mobile Home Park in Sebring for 18 years.

But on Monday, everything he had and he’d worked for was gone.

“I can’t say nothing. I lost everything, my money, my things, everything,” said Garcia.

Seventeen structures were incinerated by a fire that started shortly after 2 p.m. at the Kosan Crisplant propane facility, across the street from the mobile home park.

No residents were hurt, but the plant manager, identified Tuesday as 43-year-old Wayne Mccall, was burned on his arms, hands and legs.

“He’s a very caring guy,” said Sue Dunn, a family friend whose son worked with McCall. “He loved his people. He loved his people.”

On Tuesday, fire crews were still putting out hot spots and carefully letting the remaining gas canisters burn themselves out.

“It could take longer than today and I would not anticipate this road being open for a couple of days,” said Highlands Co. Fire Chief Marc Bashoor.

The smaller tanks acted like missiles, say officials, and flew up to a quarter mile. They easily reached Candido Garcia’s mobile home park across the street.

“They told me they saw the tanks flying in the air and landing over here,” said Garcia, “And that’s when they started to run.”

Garcia says he’s owned the property 19 years. The propane facility has been there just four.

“How could they allow this type of company next to housing in a residential area?” He asked. “I would never put a bomb, and that’s a bomb, in a place where there’s people.”

“No, I would tell you that these sorts of facilities are littered across the American landscape,” said Bashoor. “It’s something that the fire service would typically not like to see in a residential area. Sometimes it becomes the pressures of business and politics.”

The cause of the fire is still unknown, which is why officials say if anybody finds any of the burned-out tanks, they should leave it alone and call police. It could be evidence.

For all the damage, it turns out the biggest concern was never the small tanks at all, but an 18,000-pound cylinder that the fire reached and burned. Fortunately, the flames moved on before it ruptured.

Doug Mann, a vice president for the company that operates the facility, says McCall, despite being badly injured, still managed to hit a kill switch on the way out, possibly preventing a much larger disaster.

“He hit the ESV button, the emergency shut-off valve,” said Mann. “And what that does is it contains that large ... tank. He certainly could have save some lives. He certainly could have.”

Mann set the company is insured and would do what it could to make the surrounding company whole again.

Garcia was just glad that none of his longtime residents were hurt or killed.

“This is material. This can be replaced,” he said, pointing to his charred property. "You cannot replace a life.”

The Red Cross continues to help the displaced residents from the mobile home park.

There had also been some concern about several animals at a veterinary clinic across the way from the fire.

Officials say all of this animals got out safely and were taken to another animal hospital nearby.

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