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Photo by Andy Atkinson A toy dumptruck sits on the back porch of a burned mobile home in the Applegate after fire early Sunday took the lives of two people. Valinda Hall, 40, and her son, Cody, 10, below, are believed to be the victims, but officials say they can't be sure of the identities until they've done more investigation. Two die in Applegate fire Mother, son, 10, believed to be victims found in rubble By JIM DAVIS APPLEGATE -- A woman and a young boy were killed early Sunday when their mobile home burned down. The victims are believed to be Valinda Hall, 40, and her son Cody, 10, who lived at the house, said Lee Hall, Valinda's father. "I know our family's in shock," Lee Hall said. "That's all I know -- it was so unexpected." Police would not confirm the identity of the two bodies until after an autopsy, which was expected to be performed today. Fire investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed the home at 15095 Highway 238 -- just behind the Applegate Store. Fire Chief Brett Fillis of Applegate Fire District 9 said that investigators ran an arson dog through the home and didn't find any signs of flammable liquids. "I can tell you that we've ruled out any form of arson," Fillis said. The fire began in the kitchen about 1:50 a.m. Sunday, Fillis said. Scott Carey lives in a small trailer next to the Hall's home. He said that he was awakened about 2 a.m. by his neighbor pounding on his door, yelling that the trailer was on fire. "I thought it was my own trailer until I woke up and saw the light out the window and figured out what was going on," Carey said. He and the neighbor ran over to Hall's home and could hear sirens coming from the station, which was just about a block away. "(The home) was pretty much engulfed," he said. Firefighters arrived at 1:57 a.m., started dousing the blaze and opened the back door of the home. Jasper, a registered Yorkshire terrier owned by Cody and Valinda Hall, staggered out of the home. Carey said that he hoped the mother and the son weren't at home. "When I saw the dog -- I figured that she wouldn't have left the dog at home by itself," he said. Carey picked up the dog and put it in his own trailer. Later, he let a worker at the Applegate Store take care of the animal. Firefighters were able to quickly douse the blaze. Then they found the two bodies in the rubble. Investigators spent most of Sunday working on the site, but had not been able to pinpoint the cause. Valinda Hall and her son had rented the home since September when they moved in with her boyfriend. Hall and her boyfriend broke up earlier this month and he moved out. She remained, moving all of her furniture into the home. "She was still putting her stuff into that home," said Nelda Hall, Valinda's mother. Valinda Hall was born in Alaska, but grew up in the Applegate and attended schools in Medford. Cody was a fourth-grader at Applegate Elementary School. Valinda Hall did not work, but was close to her son and to animals, her family said. Valinda was a "rock hound," who enjoyed the outdoors and took her son swimming, camping and hiking. She often took Cody fishing, although she didn't like the sport herself. Cody usually stayed with his grandparents on the weekend -- but didn't this time, Nelda Hall said. Skeeter Valdez, a clerk at the Applegate Store, said that Cody came over to the store often. She remembered last weekend when Cody placed two empty two-liter bottles on his back and play-acted like they were a jet-pack. "He was just a real nice little boy," Valdez said. "He was just pleasant to be around." Carey said that he and the owner of the trailer, Bob Hoogendyk, worked on the home about two years ago and installed smoke alarms in the house. He said that he checked his own fire extinguisher in his home after the fire -- and found that it hadn't been refueled since 1979. "It's just a bad situation," Carey said of the fatal fire. "All you can hope is people think about this a little bit." "I never thought it could happen to a neighbor of mine." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA