Three firefighters taken to hospital after NW Harris County blaze

HOUSTON -- An apartment fire in northwest Harris County injured several firefighters and gutted an apartment complex Friday evening.

The fire broke out shortly around 5:30pm Friday in the 10700 block of Glenora Drive in the Cy-Fair area.

Two of those firefighters were taken to hospital with minor injuries after a stairwell collapsed on them, and a third was taken in for what we're told appeared to be heat related.

Everyone who lives in this building is displaced; many of them lost everything they owned.

"Everything is destroyed: computers, TVs, school books, clothes," resident Sametra Williams said.

Williams inside her apartment doing homework with her children when the fire started inside a neighboring apartment.

"I was playing a game and my momma smelled smoke, and we started running out the house," her son Deadreus Williams said.

Delvin Jackson heard the commotion outside.

"We walked to the window and peaked out. The lady said get the fire extinguisher. We went looking around for a fire extinguisher and we didn't see no fire extinguisher, so we couldn't help with the blaze and it was still people upstairs on the third floor," Jackson said.

CyFair VFD says fire started in the kitchen of a unit on the back side of the building. The resident says she put grease on stove for French fries, left the room and it was on fire by time she came back.

All the residents got out safely. None were seriously injured, but one woman who says she lost everything injured her foot and had to be transported.

When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting through the roof. Some feared the worst when a stairwell collapsed, trapping six firefighters.

"They were pinned in when the stairwell collapsed above them. Mayday was called. Fire crews were able to evacuate them safely. There were some minor injuries. Two firefighters were taken to CyFair medical center for observation," CyFair VFD Lt. George Farrelly said.

In all, 19 units were damaged in the flames. Now these residents are trying to figure out their next move.

"I'm calm but I'm nervous at the same time," Sametra Williams said.

Several of the people we spoke with say this could've been much worse because none of the smoke alarms in the entire building went off.