Wilner Labrenche, a longtime cook at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, was working Sunday evening when a roommate called to say their home was on fire. Things went downhill from there.

"The Fire Department was there when I got there, but everything was already gone," Labrenche said. "The house is gone. Everything. My clothes. Everything is gone."

The 3:48 p.m. fire tore through a mobile home at the Island Life Village trailer park on Maloney Avenue. Labrenche rented a room in the mobile home, as did another man, his girlfriend and their 4-year-old child, Labrenche said. The child was with a baby-sitter, and the other adults were working when an electrical short in an air conditioning unit apparently sparked the fire, said Monroe County Fire Rescue Chief Jim Callahan.

There were no injuries, and crews were able to contain and extinguish the fire in about seven minutes, Callahan said. Firefighters from the Stock Island fire station were on the scene about three minutes after the call came in, Callahan said. Crews from the Big Coppitt Key station arrived shortly after, he said.

Callahan did not offer a damage estimate, but deemed the fire a total loss.

Labrenche, who moved to Key West from Haiti about 11 years ago, said the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and The Keys put him up in a hotel for a few days, but he is unsure what he will do next. He said he has family in Miami and Orlando, but doesn't want to move out of Key West because his job is here and he has to support five children who live in Orlando.

"I can't move there right now because work is hard to find," he said. "The Red Cross gave us numbers to call, but after that I don't really know what to do."

JB Hunt, Red Cross chapter advancement officer, said the nonprofit also helped Labrenche and the others with food and clothing.

alinhardt@keynsews.com