12/11 Local roundup

Fire destroys home east of Portales

Fire destroyed a home east of Portales on Saturday morning. No one was injured in the blaze.

At 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Portales Fire Department units responded to a report of a structure fire in a single-wide mobile home at 176 Mesilla Park, which is located just west of the intersection of U.S. 70 and N.M. 202 (Cacahuate Road). Firefighters brought the fire under control within 30 minutes of their arrival, according to Battalion Chief Mickey Hargrove of the Portales Fire Department.

Donald Anderson III, who Hargrove said was the only resident of the home, was not at home when the fire broke out. Hargrove said a passerby noticed the fire and alerted the fire department.

PFD responded to the fire with a pickup, tanker and one engine along with four personnel.

“It’s a total loss,” Hargrove said. “If you drove by it doesn’t look like a total loss, but it is. Thank goodness no one was home.”

Hargrove said the exact cause of the fire could not be determined because of the extensive damage. He said there was no gas to the area where the fire started.

“We believe it to be electrical but we couldn’t determine for sure,” Hargrove said. “The area in which it started, that was the only thing it could be.”

Police release names of accident victims

Texas police have released the names of the man and woman killed Friday when the truck they were in collided with a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train.

The Driver of the Dee King LP Peterbilt truck, Charles Curtis Berry, 32, and his passenger Teresa McBride, 39, died on impact, according to officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety in Amarillo. Both victims were from Canyon, Texas.

Police notified families of the deceased before releasing their names, Parmer County Sheriff Randy Geries said.

The crash occurred one mile north of Bovina after the truck, coming from a trailer wash, attempted to cross the tracks at a crossing monitored by a stop sign, Geries said.

— Staff reports