Small plane crashes into Florida mobile home park, sets 4 residences on fire

A small plane crashed into a mobile home park after a pilot reported an engine failure in Florida on Thursday, setting several homes on fire, authorities said.

Four mobile homes caught fire in the Bayside Waters mobile home park after the crash, according to the Clearwater Fire and Rescue Department.

Everyone inside three of the homes was able to get out and were uninjured, Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said at a news conference. He did not say whether the pilot or anyone inside the fourth home where the plane crashed was injured.

"The (airport) tower ... was able to get radio transmission from the pilot that he was having a 'mayday, mayday mayday,' and the aircraft went off the radar about 3 miles north of the runway," Ehlers said.

Video in the aftermath of the crash shows flames still burning and smoke billowing out of the unrecognizable remains of a mobile home.

The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 reported an engine failure shortly before the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration told USA TODAY.

Ehlers said officials have not yet determined how many people were onboard the plane or in the mobile homes at the time of the crash. People living in the surrounding mobile homes were evacuated from the area.