Massive fire burns at facility near Old Town Spring

SPRING, TX

It started burning Friday afternoon around Aldine Westfield near Bayer, not far from Old Town Spring.

By Friday night, firefighters were still keeping an eye on hot spots. Neighbors say it's all because a couple of teenagers may have taken a prank with matches way too far.

It was an intense fire.

"Man, smoke was everywhere," neighbor Tracy Karge said.

And neighbors watched as the heavy smoke and flames quickly spread across the old Bayer Lumber Yard and dangerously close to homes.

"It's pretty crazy. I've never seen anything like this or a fire like this around this area ever," neighbor Joshua Gorsett said.

Some eyewitnesses are telling police they saw a couple of suspicious looking teens running from a hay barn as the fire started.

"He saw a couple of kids. They ran out of the barn over there and went back over yonder somewhere, I guess where they live," Karge said.

The fire got out of hand fast, burning at least eight acres. And the emergency workers had a tough time containing it.

"With the wind and the dry conditions, initially before we got here, it already spread and even once we got there, it jumped over us a few times," said Scott Schoonover with the Spring Fire Department.

It took about 100 firefighters from nine agencies to knock out the flames. Two of them had to be treated on scene for heat exhaustion.

We also found out 900 people nearby were without water since the fire affected water tanks on the property which serves those homes.

"With the dryness that we have and the people that live out here and the homes that are being lost and just livestock that's just out here in this part of Spring, just the sadness that's going on with everything else," Realtor Kevin Reynolds said. "It's just the last thing we need with everything that we've seen happening with our economy and this heat wave and the storms, it's just another added loss to somebody."

Arson investigators were still on the scene late Friday, but they've yet to release details about who or what caused this fire.