A mobile home south of Dolores was destroyed in a fire shortly before 5 p.m. Monday.

The owner, Josh Archuleta, said his wife, Heather, and the couple’s five children were home and escaped uninjured.

“I’m just thankful no one was hurt,” he said.

Archuleta said he was at work when the fire broke out, but his wife and children were in the mobile home, at 14540 Colorado Highway 145, when the blaze started.

Archuleta said the fire started after one of his sons found a lighter and was playing with it in his bedroom.

“If my trailer was going to burn down, I thought it would be from the wood stove. I never imagined this,” he said.

Dolores Fire Chief Mike Zion said the fire destroyed the back half of the mobile home, and smoke caused damage throughout the structure.

The fire began in a mattress in a back room, Zion said.

The call came in at 4:41 p.m., Zion said. Nine firefighters responded from Dolores Volunteer Fire & Rescue. The department sent two fire engines and a tanker.

Several friends and family members offered Archuleta a place to stay for the night, and victim’s advocate was on the scene to coordinate help for the family with the American Red Cross.

“Everything I own was in that trailer,” Archuleta said.

Archuleta said the family’s pets – two dogs and two cats – were not harmed in the fire. However, he said, the trailer appeared to be a complete loss.

parmijo@durangoherald.com