HOUSTON— Separate fires with the same cause damaged the homes of two Houston-area families Monday evening.
Both families were cooking when storms knocked out power. HFD said neither family turned the stoves off after the outage. When the power came back on, the stoves sparked fires.
The first fire started in southwest Houston around 10:45 p.m.
The Houston Fire Department arrived at a one-story home on Bellaire at Mary Bates and found heavy flames coming from the kitchen. Firefighters made a fast attack and extinguished the blaze within 15 minutes.
Firefighters said the mother was cooking when the storm knocked the power out. Unable to prepare their meal, the family of four went out to dinner and returned to find the house in flames. The family also had two dogs, but the animals were unharmed.
Shortly after the first blaze was extinguished, the second stove-related fire erupted in Channelview.
The Channelview Fire Department was dispatched to the Casa de Grande apartments on Ashland at Elgin around 11:30 p.m.
They arrived to find an ongoing fire in the kitchen in an upstairs apartment unit.
Firefighters made a fast attack and stopped the fire before it could spread to other units. The surrounding units suffered minor smoke damage.
