Merl's wish came true....someone set his trailer on fire!!!

Well, someone finally did it....they burned down the trailer. Merl always wanted to do it, but the cats kept eating all of his hotdogs. Attached is a picture and the article from the Hannibal Courier Post:

Fire engulfs vacant mobile home


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A mobile home fire at 617 Willow St. was extinguished by the Hannibal Fire Department Wednesday afternoon.
(AP photo)

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By MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
Courier-Post Editor

Flames shot through the roof of a vacant mobile home at 617 Willow St., Wednesday afternoon, reaching the high branches of nearby trees before Hannibal firefighters contained the fire.

Hannibal Fire Chief David Hymers didn't hesitate about calling in the state fire marshal's office to investigate the cause of the fire. Both gas and electricity had been disconnected from the vacant home, according to John Wealer, Hannibal's building inspector, leaving little doubt that arson was involved in the blaze.

Until September 2001, the trailer served as home to Merle Thomas Irick, who died Sept. 21 at the age of 38. Since that time, the trailer has been vacant while Irick's estate proceeds through probate court, his family said.

The property is owned by Mr. Irick's former wife, Angel Irick, according to Assistant Fire Chief Mike Maas.

Glen Irick, Merle's brother, arrived at the scene shortly after firefighters. "We were going to tear it down when it got out of probate," he said. Now Wealer feels certain that the house will have to be condemned and earmarked for demolition.

"There's no salvaging this - especially since the fire went through the roof," Wealer said.

After the flames were extinguished, all that remained was a smoke-filled metal shell.

Hymers confirmed that there was significant damage to the structure.

Maas reported the fire department was called to the scene at 12:32 p.m. "When we pulled up, there was fire coming out of the east end with heavy smoke," he said. "We had it knocked down in 15 to 20 minutes."

At 7 p.m. Wednesday the fire was still under investigation by the fire marshal, who will report the cause when his investigation is completed.

The firefighters were having a busy day Wednesday and had responded to 10 medical calls (traffic accidents or illnesses) since shortly before 8 a.m. Maas hoped the previous record of 14 runs on one shift would not be reached.

His crew extinguished another fire Wednesday, and this also was in an unoccupied building. This was at 5:34 p.m., when they went to a fire in a garage at 708 Bridge St.

Maas explained this area has several abandoned homes, and at 7 p.m. he had not yet learned who owned the property.

This time firefighters already knew the fire was not accidental, but neither was it arson, Maas said. "Someone had set some boards and wiring inside a garage on fire."

Someone else called the fire department to the scene, he said, and the fire was extinguished, without the garage having any fire damage.

Some information for this article was supplied by Courier-Post Staff Writer Bev Darr.