COEUR d'ALENE - A man in his early 50s and his young grandson on Thursday morning escaped harm from a rapidly-burning fire that destroyed the man's travel trailer at Bambi R.V. Park.

"The thing about trailer fires is they burn so hot and so fast," said Bobby Gonder, fire investigator for the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department. "It's really hard to pinpoint the cause on something like this."

Park residents said the man, Tom Cosson, is disabled and lives alone.

The call to the fire department came after 8:30 a.m., and the fire was out in minutes, said Gonder. The RV park is located in the 3100 block of N. Government Way.

Cosson had to go to the hospital to get replacement medications for those that were burned up in the fire and also to get a checkup, Gonder said. The grandson, around 4 or 5 years old, wasn't injured, he said.

A home next to the roughly 35-foot travel trailer was slightly damaged by the fire, as was a trailer on the other side of the burning trailer because of heat exposure, Gonder said.

Nearly 20 firefighters responded to the fire. An engine from Kootenai County Fire and Rescue and one from Northern Lakes Fire District also responded to the fire, Gonder said.

Jody Hairgrove, 51, a park resident, said he saw flames shooting 25 feet high from the burning trailer.

"It didn't take long" to destroy the trailer, he said. "It's mind blowing, let me tell you."

Hairgrove said park residents donated blankets, pillows, heaters and other items to Cosson.

"You could smell the smoke on him. I gave him the shoes off my feet, and gave him my coat," he said. "I walked home barefoot."

Park resident Carmen Vegas, 63, said her dog, Max, barked and woke her. When she peeked out her trailer she saw black smoke and heard a lot of commotion, then soon saw flames leaping from the trailer.

"That little boy was so sad," she said. "I told him 'you can always get another pair of those Spider-Man shoes.'"