3 fires kept HFD busy overnight, prompting officials to share advice as record heat continues

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Three separate fires kept firefighters busy overnight, prompting officials to share some advice as record heat continues across the Houston area.

It takes a lot of work to get a fire under control, and doing that in a heat wave makes things even tougher for firefighters. Monday night, a house, a vacant apartment building, and a warehouse all went up in flames.

The warehouse fire happened at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday on Schurmier near the South Beltway.

It appears a box full of tires for semi-trucks started burning inside an open-air metal building. The company was closed at the time, but the cause of the fire is under investigation.

The next fire happened not long after when a house fire was called in at about 1:22 a.m. on Jutland Road near Tavenor.

No one was home, but the fire caused a lot of damage. The cause is also under investigation.

The next fire was called in just after 1 a.m. when a vacant apartment building on the Gulf Freeway near Bessemer caught on fire.

No one was in the units and no firefighters were hurt, authorities said. Arson investigators are now trying to figure out what caused the fire.

Firefighters have some advice for us as we continue to see dangerously high temperatures.

"Make sure your AC is working correctly. Don't try to overwork them. That can be a problem, too, and that can start fires," Deputy Chief James Pennington said.

Fire crews from several units were rotated into service at these fires to make sure none of the first responders suffered any heat-related problems.

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