Four families without homes after fire destroys apartments in northwest Houston, HFD says
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- At least eight people were displaced after a fire destroyed several apartment units in northwest Houston, according to the Houston Fire Department.
Four units at the Oakwood Apartments were damaged in the fire, according to HFD officials.
Denise Rhodes, a building resident, said she returned home from the grocery store when the fire broke out.
"(I) just got home from grocery shopping at Walmart, was getting all my stuff in, and was told to bring out a bucket of water that the apartment upstairs was on fire," Rhodes recalled.
"We kept trying to throw water on it, got a hose on it, still wasn't extinguishing at all, top of the roof was on fire."
Rhodes could not help but think about the impact this fire would have on her dad if things had worsened.
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"I have a dad who's on high-concentrated oxygen. I was trying to get that out before the whole thing went up too much further because if it did, there'd be a big hole here," she said.
HFD crews arrived shortly after 4 p.m. and were able to get control of the fire within about 15 minutes, but there were some challenges.
"Since it was inside the walls and the wood spaces, they had to tear a lot of parts out just to get to where the fire was. That's labor intensive," Deputy Chief Rogers Westoff said.
A fire has left several families without a home for two consecutive weekends in Houston.
On October 8, crews worked to put out a heavy fire at an apartment complex in W. Houston on Lazy Hollow Drive, where one firefighter and a resident were taken to the hospital.
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Fortunately, no one was injured, including service dogs that were rescued.
Officials have not determined how the fire started. Arson investigators were on the scene but said there were no suspicious activity reports.
