Large apartment fire on Hillcroft southeast of the Südwest motorway

Houston firefighters still do hot spots at the scene of a raging 3-alarm apartment fire in the southwest of Houston. Air 11 was over the scene when the wind spread the flames over the entire upper floor. Several units are destroyed.

The three-alarm fire is located in a complex on Hillcroft between Hornwood Drive and de Moss Drive. According to the Houston fire department, it started around 2 p.m. This is southwest of the southwestern motorway/59.

A deputy fire chief said that things escalated quickly and ask the first crews for help in the scene when they went three alarms.

“The crews came here and found that it was a wind -driven fire,” he said. “What made this fire challenging is an older building that has no fire stop or what we call Firewalls. That means that the wind as soon as the fire has reached the upper floors, it took it and has led down the entire length of the building.”

Khou 11 interviewed a resident when a wall collapsed on firefighters and the photojournalist Ryan Phillips held the scene. As if by a miracle, the firefighters were not injured.

Fortunately, according to HFD, there were no civilian injuries either.

He said about 200 firefighters and 65 units were on site. The Houston police helped the residents' evacuation.

A resident said he had rushed home from work when he learned about the fire.

“I went to work and got a call from the manager and said: 'Hey, the apartment next to you burns,' 'said the resident about Khou 11.” I come back, now I'm seeing that. “

He watched helplessly how the fire burned. Now he is worried about his cats and neighbors.

“I hope the lady lives next to me,” the man told us.

He said he had just moved into the complex a few weeks ago.

“I have nothing left after the look.”

He and other residents still tried to find their pets a few hours after the fire. A man's parrot went into the area.

The drivers were asked to avoid the area so that emergency vehicles could get through.