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Pearlington Man Dies In FEMA Trailer Fire

A Hancock County man died early Wednesday morning after his FEMA trailer went up in flames. Authorities say 71-year-old Sidney Strickland, a handicapped man, died when he couldn't get out of his camper located on Hancock Drive in the Pearlington Community.

Timothy White was sound to sleep when he heard his 71-year-old roommate calling him and screaming, "Fire."

"I'm a deep sleeper, but I finally woke up. And when I woke up, I saw that the foot of the bed was on fire. So I grabbed the blankets and covered it and tried to smother it. Then I went to the sink and started scooping water and dumping that on it. Then I tried to get the fire extinguisher off the wall and it wouldn't come off the wall," White said.

White says the smoke was building up inside the small FEMA trailer. He couldn't see enough to use his cell phone. White says he went outside and used his to call 911.

"I could hear Sidney calling me. I tried to go back into the trailer, but it was too late. The smoke was so bad and the heat. So I couldn't get back in there. I couldn't get him out of there. I couldn't do anything."

White and Strickland had been roommates for 12 years. White says Strickland had a number of health problems, which left him unable to help get himself out.

"He's been getting weaker over the past two years. Went from a cane, to a walker, to a wheel chair. And he's 210 pounds and I couldn't lift him."

White believes the fire was probably started by a cigarette.

"But I don't know why it would be at the end of the bed. I don't know why," White said. "He dropped cigarettes in the bed sometimes. He'd say, 'I dropped a cigarette.' And I'd have to find it."

Investigators will check that and other possible causes.

"Right now it's still under investigation, Al, and we're looking into it. And we'll be back out here in a little while and try to put the pieces together," Hancock Co. EMA Director Brian Adam said.

Tim White says he's still in shock and knows he'll have a tough time coping with the loss of his good friend.

"He was a really nice person, a generous person."

Sidney Strickland was a retired psychiatrist. He and Tim White moved into the FEMA trailer after their home on Hancock Drive was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. White says Strickland had just bought a mobile home which was was scheduled to be delivered this week.

by Al Showers