BURNHAM – A family of four was left homeless when fire ripped through their Lower Pond Road mobile home Tuesday.

Sonja Erving, her 12- and 9-year-old daughters and 7-year-old son received assistance from the American Red Cross after the fire. Emergency services director Al Blouin of the Red Cross office in Fairfield said the family was given a place to stay and given warm clothing and footwear. Blouin said the family lost everything in the fire.

“They are doing quite good, considering,” Blouin said Wednesday. “The mother is still quite emotional, but that’s understandable.”

Neighbors reported the fire to the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department at about 8 a.m. Sonja Erving was away at work but the children’s mother told them to stay home because she believed school had been called off because of the icy weather.

Burnham Fire Chief Lyle Chadwick said the trailer was fitted with smoke detectors and they played a part in alerting the children. One of the girls was in bed when the overhead detector sounded its alarm. The three children fled to the safety of a neighbor’s home when the fire broke out.

Chadwick said investigators have attributed the cause of the blaze to a faulty extension cord connected to the main power supply to carry current to an addition that was built onto the trailer before the Erving family moved there. The cord was attached to the underside of the trailer’s floor. He said the cord was of the common household variety and was an accident waiting to happen.

“It was a lightweight cord, like the kind you use inside your home,” Chadwick said Wednesday. “The fire marshal investigator said he never saw anything like it, he just couldn’t believe what he found under there.”

The fire spread swiftly through the home, destroying the family’s belongings. Fire units from Unity, Pittsfield and Troy assisted at the scene. There were no injuries, said Chadwick.

The Red Cross is accepting donations on behalf of the Erving family and can be reached at 453-8029.