Authorities in Clearwater, Florida report that a small plane crashed into a mobile home park, killing several people

Authorities in Clearwater, Florida reported that a small plane crashed into a mobile home park on Thursday night, killing multiple people in the ensuing fire.

At a news briefing on Thursday, city Fire Chief Scott Ehlers stated that firefighters arrived at the crash scene at the Bayside Waters mobile home park at approximately 7:15 p.m. local time. According to Ehlers, they discovered four burning trailer homes, one of which contained the downed aircraft.

Later, Ehlers declared, "I can confirm that we have several fatalities both from the aircraft and within the mobile home," though he did not specify the exact number of deaths.

The number of passengers on the aircraft was still unknown Thursday night.

The fire chief reported on Thursday that the plane was discovered "predominately" in a single mobile home. According to Ehlers, crews were still working to contain hotspots and get to the victims' bodies.

According to Ehlers, on Thursday, there was a report of an emergency involving a plane at an airport concurrent with the officials receiving a call about a fire at the mobile home park. Eventually, the plane disappeared from radar about 3 miles north of a runway, which is where the mobile home park is.

Situated on Florida's central west coast, roughly 23 miles west of Tampa, is Clearwater, a city with over 110,000 residents.