A mobile home went up in flames off River Road Tuesday night, the second in as many days.

Bunyan Volunteer Fire Department, Broad Creek EMS and Chocowinity VFD, responded to the emergency call shortly after 7 p.m., but the mobile home was fully involved before they arrived.

There was nothing suspicious about the fire, according to Assistant Chief Daniel Adams, Bunyan VFD. It started in the kitchen.

Jim Cox was making dinner when he stepped outside of his home and forgot about the meat he was cooking on the stove, according to his sister-in-law, Linda Cox.

A visibly distraught Jim Cox paced on the road nearby as firefighters searched for hot spots in the remains of his home. Outside of the basic structure, most of the trailer had burned.

“He’s okay, but he lost his little dog, I think,” Linda Cox said.

Linda and husband Holman Cox own Edgewater Mobile Home Park. She said Jim Cox had been a permanent resident there for five years — on and off for about 20 years — and that in the forty years she and her husband have owned the park, they’ve never had a fire in one of the mobile homes.

This comes the evening after another mobile home off River Road burned. Monday’s fire was also a complete loss, as flames took down a vacant trailer in Mimosa Mobile Home Park in less than half an hour.

Adams had said those who live in mobile homes should always have smoke detectors.

“As soon as they sound — get out,” he advised.