MONTOUR TWP. — Fire engulfed a woman's trailer home here early Sunday within minutes of her initially spotting smoke seeping out of heat vents on the floor.

“You could hardly breathe,” said Sheila Kressler, 60. She woke up to smoke filling her 80-foot trailer shortly after 2 a.m.

“I opened the door on the propane furnace and I could see flames on the bottom," she said. “That's when I called 9-1-1 and grabbed my pocketbook and got out,” she said.

Kressler immediately alerted a friend, 55-year-old Glenda Fatzinger, who was staying with her a few days in Lot 2 at 522 Montour Blvd.

“She needed a place to stay. There was no heat and no running water in her trailer up near Millville,” Kressler said.

Fire crews responding from both Columbia and Montour counties were met with heavy smoke and flames pouring out of the trailer located close to the entrance off Route 11. They laid multiple water lines to douse the blaze.

Tankers shuttled in water from a commercial property nearby and also tapped a hydrant near the highway.

Two large propane tanks and an electrical panel sat along the exterior of the trailer.

Kressler managed to get her two mixed terrier dogs out, but was missing a cat named Harley. She sat dejectedly while watching the fire fight from inside her SUV parked a short distance away.

Volunteer firefighters from Buckhorn, Bloomsburg, Catawissa, Danville and Mahoning Township all joined in the effort to knock down flames and prevent fire from spreading in the trailer court.

Kressler said she has lived in the trailer court for 14 years and owns her trailer, on which she had put three additions over the years.

“But I don't have insurance,” she sobbed. “I can't afford it.”

She was waiting for the arrival of a sister who lives in Berwick and a brother in Muncy to the trailer court to assist her.

“I lost everything,” she said.

Leon Bogdan can be reached at leon.bogdan@pressenterprise.net or by calling 570-387-1234 ext. 1307.