FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Neighbors living a mobile home park off E. Harmony Road in Fort Collins are giving their first-person accounts of what happened when an explosion and a subsequent fire rocked the community Monday night.
“My friend pulled into the driveway and came running into the house going, 'You got to come see this, you got to come see this!' So I ran out (and) they were flames,” neighbor Denise Hicks said.
“I see just the flames and a bunch of smoke and I just came out here and it was insane. It was so, so... it was just terrible,” neighbor Xavier Ette remembered.
People in the Harmony Village couldn't believe what they saw last night after a mobile home went up in flames around 6:30 pm.
“It’s scary because these things go up in like 90 seconds,” Hicks said.
Hicks lives nearby and thought it was fireworks at first.
“But then to find out what it was was really scary,” she said.
Police said the woman who owned the home ran to a neighbor's property, claiming a man she knew was in the house and assaulted her. He then threatened to kill her. When she escaped to call police, there was an explosion and the mobile home caught fire.
The man found dead in the home is believed to be the same man accused of assaulting the owner.
“We’ve been here eight years now and never would’ve thought that,” Hicks added.
“It was unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that before and I was like, 'Is there people inside? Is everyone OK.' It was just really nerve-racking,” Ette said.
Some neighbors said it was a tough night for everyone.
“It is. It is and I feel sad for the woman and hopefully she’s OK,” Hicks said.
Police still have not released exactly what caused the home to explode like it did.
On July 9, the Larimer County Coroner's Office identified the man who died as Jeremy S. Parks, 45, of Fort Collins. His death was ruled a suicide by gunshot wound to the head.
