Fire erupted inside the Lake Villa Manufactured Home Community early Saturday afternoon, causing an estimated $11,000 to $12,000 in damage, but no injuries.

According to Oxford Fire Chief Pete Scholz, a woman sitting inside a single-wide manufactured home on Dunlap Circle saw something fall outside her window. Shortly after, a neighbor came knocking to alert the occupants – a husband, wife and their baby – that their home was on fire.

“The husband opened the front door and it was just nothing but a ball of flames on the front porch,” Scholz said.

The object the woman had previously seen fall was a piece of melted siding that dropped off the house.

All three occupants used the back door to immediately exit the home before Oxford firefighters arrived on scene.

According to Scholz, the front porch/deck area was on fire and it had spread into a wall and the ceiling area. Firefighters wasted no time attacking the fire.

“We were able to knock it down pretty quick,” he said.

Scholz said the fire caused no real structural damage, but the front third of the home sustained “heavy damage” from the water and firefighters pulling down the ceiling.

“The rest of the trailer was fine,” he noted. “No smoke damage or anything.”

The chief estimated there was at least $8,000 in damage to the home, plus another $3,000 to $4,000 in damage to contents.

The fire is currently being investigated by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, but Scholz said it appears the cause may have been a cigarette. Scholz noted the front porch/deck area is where the husband went to smoke and that’s where cigarette butts were dumped in a plastic flower pot.