Firefighters from Oceano, Grover Beach and Cal Fire battle a blaze at a 30-foot trailer at a vacation RV park in Oceano on Saturday. A woman was taken to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital with burns.
A resident of an RV resort in Oceano lost her home and was injured Saturday afternoon when her trailer caught fire because she was smoking a cigarette while changing an oxygen tank, authorities said.
Velma Selnik, 55, who had lived at the Pacific Dunes Ranch for about eight years, suf fered second-and third-degree burns to 9 percent of her body, according to County/Cal Fire Investigator Andy Andersen.
She had been smoking while changing an oxygen cylinder used to treat her asthma when the fire started, according to Andersen.
“This is actually common,” Andersen said about people smoking while handling personal oxygen supplies. “This is what can happen.”
An off-duty fire captain from the Fresno area who was vacationing several RV spaces away said his daughter told him that she saw black smoke. Rodney Jared rushed toward Selnik’s space and saw her standing at the top of her stairs inside the RV while it was still burning.
“She was on the steps when I approached her,” Jared said. “She had a small burn on her shoulder and back.”
Jared helped her out of the area. Selnik was taken to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital for treatment.
Witnesses reported hearing an explosion and seeing the door fling open and Selnik walk out with singed hair, Andersen said.
No one else was in the RV when the fire started about 3:30 p. m. at 1205 Silver Spur Place, Andersen said. Firefighters who arrived first at the scene said the home was engulfed in flames and the fire was contained a short time later.
It caused an estimated $25,000 damage to the trailer and $5,000 to its contents, Andersen said.
Selnik’s dog also survived the fire and was being rounded up by neighbors who planned to take care of it.
Leslie Parrilla can be reached at 783-7645.
McClatchy Interactive is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The SanLuisObispo.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not SanLuisObispo.com.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
Print
E-Mail
