Douglas Arthur Garbers, BHS 1972

Douglas Arthur Garbers, BHS 1972

Santa Ynez Valley News, Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Morning blaze burns mobile home, leaves one dead

Firefighters found body of Douglas Arthur Garders

When Lynne Morian awoke to the smell of smoke in her trailer early Thursday morning, her first move was to open her curtains to see what was happening. Outside, she saw flames had engulfed a nearby trailer. “I thought, “It can catch on to other trailers.” Morian said. “Some people have propane. That could’ve blown this place apart.” 

The early morning blaze fully involved a mobile home at 815 N. O Street in Lompoc, the location of Continental Mobile Home Park. The Lompoc Fire Department, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and Vandenberg Fire Department responded to reports of a fire at a single-wide mobile home at 1:55 a.m., according to Lompoc Fire Chief Kurt Laipow. The fire threatened several nearby mobile homes.

Inside, firefighters found the body of a man, identified as Douglas Arthur Garbers who was 60 years old. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to verify the cause of death. The Lompoc Fire Department ruled that the blaze was accidental, Laipow said. The fire was likely related to smoking, he said. 

The home did not have smoke alarms and had an excessive accumulation of personal belongings, all of which contributed to the fire, Laripow said. “All those factors made for a very fast-moving, hot fire,” He said. “Most likely, by the time the occupant realized it. It was too late. When our first engine got there, the trailer was well-involved to a point that surviving it would not been possible.” 

In light of the fire, the Community Action Commissions (CAC) of Santa Barbara County announced that it is currently offering services to make low-income households safer. The CAC provides free smoke alarms, gas appliance safety testing and carbon monoxide detectors, according to Central Administrative Services Distractor Holly Carmody.

Mobile home park resident Fernando Tabin said his dog, Nemo, alerted him and Marian to the fire. The pair could not get back to sleep four about an hour and a half because of the excessive smoke, he said.

Other neighbors in the surrounding mobile homes said Garbers was a hermit who moved to Continental Mobile Home Park in 2009. He mainly kept to himself, they said. Tony Martinez, who lives next door to the home involved in the blaze, said another neighbor beat on his door at 2 a.m. to tell him his home was on fire. But after seeing the Fire Department’s work, Martinez said he did not worry about his safety.

Martinez said Garbors stayed in his home most of the time. “The guy didn’t come out much.” He said. “He had a bad hip. He couldn’t really move around.”