Man’s death at Fresno mobile home could have been avoided, but bureaucracy got in the way 

Mobile home parks meet a critical need in California’s housing market, yet they remain hidden from the view of most people.

That is, until a tragedy strikes.

Such occurred the night of April 29 at the Trails End Mobile Home Park, which is located at East Sierra Avenue and Blackstone Avenue in Fresno.

A fire broke out, and firefighters arrived to find two mobile homes engulfed by flames. Dead in one of the units was Ronald Richardson, 56. Another person was injured and taken to the hospital.

One news report said Richardson rescued five people from the flames before succumbing to them himself. Firefighters said the cause of the blaze was a person pouring fuel into a generator as it was running.

The death was the latest bit of bad news at Trails End, according to a follow-up story by staff writer Cassandra Garibay, who reports for the Fresnoland Lab at The Bee.

The park was operating on a suspended license due to a string of violations dating back well into last year. The violations included piles of trash outside homes, old appliances strewn about on a lot and a hose draining water from a shower and sink into the roadway.

Making matters worse, the California Department of Housing and Community Development knew about the issues, having suspended the permit. But Fresno city leaders said the state had not informed them about the problems at Trails End because, under current law, the state has jurisdiction over mobile home parks.

“Code Enforcement had no knowledge of problems at the park going back at least two years,” City Attorney Doug Sloan wrote in an email to Garibay. “Nothing.”

Park violations

Yet Housing and Community Development, in an email response, said it in fact “communicated with City of Fresno Code Enforcement on several occasions, as the city filed a complaint with HCD alleging junk, rubbish and garbage, people camping on lots, and inoperable vehicles in the park.”

HCD says its jurisdiction is limited when it comes to closing a park that has health and safety violations. The agency oversees nearly 4,000 mobile home lots in the city.

“HCD does not have the authority to close a mobile home park, only the city can take that action,” Kyle Krause, the agency’s deputy director of codes and standards, told Garibay. “Often this happens where (the cities) are just not fully aware of their statutory authority and their obligation under the law to do so.”

To contend Ronald Richardson died as a result of governmental error is probably going too far. He died because of a human negligence — someone dumping gas into a running generator.

The poor living conditions and fire hazards, however, were known to HCD for months, and yet, nothing other than permit suspension was brought against the property owner.

Fresno officials say they remained unaware of the potential disaster; the state claims otherwise, leaving this an unsatisfactory “he said, she said” situation of two governments.

Same page

Clearly, there must be revisions to the procedures governing when a state agency like HCD can involve local authorities over a park in bad, even dangerous shape. The communication must improve. If the state cannot involve cities, it should get the local sheriff to act, as county government is an extension of the state. Conditions should not have deteriorated as far as they did at Trails End.

Ronald Richardson was 56 years old. According to a KSEE television report, he went to Trails End to sell someone there a speaker.

He paid for it with his life — the sad result, in part, of a bureaucratic breakdown.