HOUSTON—A raging 4-alarm apartment fire in southwest Houston displaced dozens of residents Monday morning.
It started around 1 a.m. at the Lakeside Place apartments, located on Wilcrest near Lakeside Forest.
Crews arrived to find heavy flames shooting from the third-floor roof of the building. As the fire grew wilder and got out of control, they pulled additional alarms.
"I was laying in the bed, and he ran in saying there was a fire in the building and I was like, ‘Swear to God?’ He was like, ‘Yeah!’ So I ran out. I had no shirt on," resident Brandon James said. "It’s a big fire. It’s the biggest fire I’ve ever seen."
Firefighters were forced to go into defensive mode, and the blaze burned for more than two and a half hours.
A total of 24 units were affected.
"Everything. Everything I have is in there. I don’t have anything. This is all I have, that I have on, so I’m going to have to start all over," apartment resident Duron Hill said.
Fire officials said the complex is old, so there probably weren’t firewalls in the attic.
"Once they go here, the fire had already vented. There’s probably no fire stops in the attic area, so the fire spread very rapidly. Extra companies had to be called in," HFD Assistant Chief Adrian Trevino said.
Miraculously, no residents were hurt, but a veteran firefighter had to be transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
Officials said he’s expected to make a full recovery.
Hours after the fire was out, crews were still at the scene, checking on hot spots.
The entire third floor of the building was destroyed.
"We’ve been moving from place to place, and then we finally get here and we get a fire in the building. It’s just unfortunate events happening," resident Terrell Galloway said.
The Red Cross will be helping the victims.
"I’ve lived here nine years. There’s a lot of people in our building that have lived there as long as 23 and 27 years, so it’s a long occupancy. So it’s kind of a shock," resident Kathy Leehey said.
Arson investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze.
