GREENE – Two families were left homeless Friday when fire gutted their mobile home on Bergeron Road.

Nobody was inside the house when the fire broke out about 1 p.m.

A group of children playing in the neighborhood noticed smoke coming from the windows and ran to tell their parents. Patty Disher called 911, then told her husband to run over and make sure nobody was inside.

“Our first thought was the kids. We weren’t sure if they were in there,'” Disher said, as she watched firefighters shoot water into both sides of the trailer.

Fire crews from Greene, Turner, Wales, Sabattus and Lisbon responded to battle the blaze. It took them more than an hour to knock down the flames.

Greene Fire Chief Bruce Tufts said the cause is still under investigation.

By the time the fire was under control, the people who lived in the home had left with volunteers from the American Red Cross. Tufts said he plans to interview them Saturday in hopes of gathering more information.

Tufts wasn’t sure how many people were living in the house at the time.

Neighbors said it belonged to a single mother, with three young children, who had been sharing it with her sister, brother-in-law and their two children.

The owner of the home was bringing her children to their father’s house when the fire started, neighbors said. She arrived home to find smoke pouring from every window.

“She busts her butt to take care of her kids,” said Katie Lehay, who lives across the street. “I can’t imagine what she is going through.”

Lehay left her home minutes before the fire started to take a walk to a nearby sand pit. She ran back as soon as she heard.

“It’s amazing how fast it was,” she said. “It was just minutes that I was gone.”

There are only four mobile homes in the small park off Sawyer Road, and one of them is vacant.

“I feel sick,” Lehay said. “We are all very close.”