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Photo by Bob Pennell Sean Heller describes how the fire that burned his White City mobile home started near an electrical box and quickly took the rest of the home. Family's homeless Fire destroys rental home, belongings By CHRIS BRISTOL WHITE CITY -- Sean Heller was watching TV at home with his 5-year-old stepdaughter, Sierra, when he noticed a weird buzzing noise. At first he thought the sound might be coming from the air conditioner in the master bedroom. It seemed unlikely, since it was the middle of January and the air conditioner wasn't on, but the buzzing was so loud he got up to check it out anyway. It wasn't the AC. Heller kept listening, trying to pin down the source. The TV and the lights began flickering. "After a bit, it sounded to me like maybe it was coming from Kayla's room," he said, referring to his 11-year-old stepdaughter. Kayla was at school. He opened the bedroom door. "I couldn't believe it," he recalled. "Flames were shooting up the wall. Smoke was filling the room. I turned around and shouted, `Fire, fire!"' Sean grabbed Sierra, a kindergartner who was home sick with the flu. The only other person at home was Sean's father, Joe. All three made it outside. By the time firefighters arrived, the place was engulfed in flames. "It only took them about three minutes to get here," Sean estimated, "but it seemed like forever." That was Thursday. For five days now, the Heller family has been homeless -- Sean, his wife Teresa, Kayla, 7-year-old Robert, Sierra and Joe, who is 69 and suffers from emphysema and congestive heart failure. The Hellers rented the Antelope Road home, a single-wide mobile with a trailer add-on, from Teresa's family. Firefighters believe the blaze was caused by an electrical short in Kayla's bedroom, apparently in a plug that wasn't being used. "We lost it all," Sean said. For now, the Hellers are staying with friends. But that can't last for long. Kayla and Robert attend Mountain View Elementary School in White City, and the family needs a place to live. Sean, a 34-year-old house painter, says jobs are scarce during the winter. He says he was just getting ready to look for something steady when the disaster struck. "I don't want anyone to take pity on me. I'm just looking for ... direction," he said. "I guess maybe that sounds like pity. What I'm trying to say is I need some help. That's all. Some help." On Monday, Sean picked through the rubble for anything that wasn't destroyed. Amazingly, family photos survived. Apparently the albums were buried under a pile of clothing in Kayla's room. "We kept telling her to clean up her room," Sean said, laughing. "You can yell at them all you want to, but sometimes they do good by not doing what you tell them to." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA