Check your vent pipes: Warning after a load of laundry leads to house fire

DEER PARK, Texas (KTRK) -- Deer Park firefighters have a warning after a load of laundry caused a house fire Sunday night.

They were called to the home in the 4800 block of South Meadow Dr. around 10:34 p.m.

The homeowner, Randy Davis, says the couple had just thrown in a last load of towels to dry and they went to bed.

Davis said he was alerted by the smoke alarms and found his house filled with smoke.

He found flames shooting up about three feet from the dryer in the laundry room.

"We tried taking water to it, pots of water. It went out and then came back," he said.

Phillip Arroyo, with the Deer Park Volunteer Fire Dept., told Eyewitness News there was a lint blockage, not in the screen but in the exhaust pipe.

Arroyo says the heat from the dryer was backed up and the lint acted like kindling, igniting a spark.

The fire department says this is a reminder to regularly clean out the vent pipe attached to drying machines.

Davis says he will be adding a fire extinguisher to his laundry room.