Clothes dryer fire damages Petaluma mobile home

A buildup of lint near a clothes dryer sparked a fire in Petaluma on Wednesday night that caused $10,000 in damge to a double-wide mobile home.

Firefighters rushed to a mobile home in the 700 block of North McDowell Boulevard around 6 p.m. and found the resident and a neighbor fighting the small fire with a garden hose, Capt. Chad Costa said.

The owner said he’d been watching TV when he heard a loud pop and saw a fire in the laundry room. He and his daughter evacuated and with help from a neighbor, he extinguished the fire.

The fire was contained to the laundry room, Costa said, but there was smoke damage throughout the residence.

Costa said it was determined that the fire was caused by buildup of lint from the dryer, which caused a fire behind the dryer.

The residence, which had no smoke detectors, was deemed uninhabitable, Costa said. The residents left to stay with a friend.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.