2 houses heavily damaged in Cy-Fair fire
HOUSTON - Two houses were heavily damaged in a fire in a Cy-Fair neighborhood on Wednesday, officials say.
Fire burns neighboring homes
What we know:
The fire was first reported around 12:30 p.m. on Walnut Cove Drive, near Highway 6 and Keith Harrow Boulevard.
The Cy-Fair Fire Department says firefighters arrived and discovered that the fire from the first home had spread to a neighboring house.
Firefighters called for additional companies as they worked to control the fire. CFFD says it took about an hour to an hour and a half to get the fires under control.
Both houses sustained significant damage.
Officials say the family that lives in the house that initially caught on fire were not home at the time.
A resident of the neighboring house was reportedly home at the time and had AC technicians working in the attic. Officials say she went outside and saw her garage was on fire and then went back into the home to alert the workers and grab her pets.
No injuries were reported. Officials say one firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion.
What we don't know:
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Power out in neighborhood
Local perspective:
Due to the fires, the Cy-Fair Fire Department said power was shut off for "a large part" of the Deerfield Subdivision. Residents were asked not to call their power provider.
‘Imagining it’s a total loss'
What they're saying:
FOX 26 spoke with the owner of the neighboring home that caught fire. He says he was on his way home when he started getting multiple phone calls.
"My wife called me and said the house was on fire. She was hysterical. My daughter called me right away and said, ‘I’m gonna call 911. The house is on fire,'" said Brian Wall. "The AC guys called me… they said, ‘There was a fire next door. We don’t know what to do. We left.'"
Wall says his family had been in the home for 20 years. He hadn't been able to look inside his home before speaking with FOX 26, but he said he believed the home was "a total loss and a rebuild."
Fortunately, there were some valuable items that firefighters were able to recover for the family.
"There was a fire box that we had that had a keepsake of my wife's in there. They were able to find that. Everything kind of collapsed over that part of the house, but they were able to get that," Wall said. "We also got a flag that my son got for an eagle that flew over the capital of the United States."
The Source: Cy-Fair Fire Department and Brian Wall.