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Houston firefighters tackle three blazes

10:20 AM CDT on Monday, July 14, 2008

Kevin Reece / 11 News

HOUSTON -- Firefighters fanned out across the city last night, tackling hotspots in southwest Houston, west Houston and the southeast side.  Their biggest concern came from a nursery fire that turned into a four-alarm blaze.

KHOU photo

Overnight fire at Cornelius Nursery.

In the back of the Cornelius Nursery, storage buildings that were filled with fertilizers and pesticides caught fire . The flames and potentially toxic smoke were headed to several apartment complexes just a few feet away.

As firefighters began their battle with exploding transformers, torched power poles, and a billowing cloud of burning fertilizers and pesticides, they soon discovered it was just the start of a very busy morning.

KHOU photo

Houston fire fighters battled 3 blazes last night.

"We actually went in with HPD and we kicked some doors on one building that's right next to the fire building to make sure everybody was out of there," said Jack Williams of the Houston Fire Department.

The fire department went though the same drill across town just 15 minutes later. It was another apartment complex, and four units were on fire.  The only difference was at this one, a woman was arrested on suspicion of arson.

Video: Kevin Reece's News 11 Report

But the night wasn’t over. Two hours later, a massive apartment fire erupted at Sandpiper and Dumfries.

"I was scared and I got all me and my children out of the house," said resident Shelly Daniel.

The apartment complex was mostly run down and empty, but now, it’s burned to the ground.

"Looks like there's about 20 units that are going be totally destroyed. If you look at this building it pretty much burnt from one end to the other," said Williams.

Luckily, there were no major injuries at any of the fires, but one man cut his arm trying to get residents out of the burning apartment complex.

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