From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 22, 1989:

A family’s mobile home, located about a quarter mile west of Midland Junction and two miles north of Lawrence, had caught fire about 6 p.m. the previous evening and had been gone in less than five minutes, according to Ed Erskin, the residence’s owner. “My daughter and another friend and I were standing out front, and we heard a pop and looked up, and the whole kitchen was on fire. The whole thing went in about three minutes,” Erskin said. “I’ve got insurance. At least I think I do…. Everything we had was in there. Every stitch of clothes — everything.” Lawrence firefighters responding to the blaze were kept busy dousing embers that a strong south wind threatened to carry to surrounding farm buildings. They placed the loss at $15,000 and said the blaze had started when an electric range had been left on while no one was inside the structure. This was the second mobile home the family had lost to fire in a year, Erskin said.