HOUSTON—Yet another fire in Southwest Houston Friday had an already understaffed arson unit working overtime.

The most recent fire, which went to three alarms, displaced dozens at the Enchanted Fountain Apartments on Renwick and Edgemore.

“It’s not only destroying houses. It’s not only destroying buildings. It’s destroying dreams,” apartment resident Betty Mejia said.

Hers is a sentiment shared by fellow residents and arson investigators alike, but those investigators have their hands full.

The Houston Fire Department only has 16 arson investigators to handle each and every suspicious blaze.

Just last year, there were 1,256 fires in Houston, and 863 of those were ruled arson.

That small team of investigators handled them all.

Southwest Houston alone has been the scene of more than two dozen suspicious fires of late, leaving arson scrambling to handle the case load.

“Do we need more? Of course we do. Of course we do. We need more firefighters in the station. We need more arson investigators in my division,” HFD’s Gabe Cortez said.

Cortez said arson investigators are working hard to catch the culprit or culprits behind fires in Southwest Houston.

“We’re using every effort to try and keep the citizens of Houston safe, and try to resolve the fires in that southwest area,” Cortez said.

Still, all of their efforts have yet to result in any arrests.

So as another building came down Friday, victims were once again left to pick up the pieces.

But while their dreams and memories may have gone up in smoke, arson investigators hope the suspect may have left clues behind.

To that end, Cortez has submitted a request to add more arson investigators to his team.