The Houston Rural Fire Department responded Feb. 11 to a late afternoon blaze that destroyed an unoccupied residence on Mineral Drive north of Houston.
Houston Rural Fire Chief Don Gaston said a pumper, four brush trucks and five firefighters traveled to the location at about 4:30 p.m.
By the time crews arrived, the single-wide mobile home where the fire started was already fully engulfed. Fire was spreading through brush, leaves and trees to the south and threatening to burn a house on an adjacent property,
But Gaston and company managed to snuff the flames before it sustained heavy damage, although vinyl siding on its northern side melted from the heat.
“It might be a good thing the wind was coming out of the north,” Gaston said, “because if it had been blowing the other way things might have gotten ugly. It would have gone down to the river, but if it jumped the river, there wouldn’t have been anything to stop it for miles.”
The cause of the fire is not known, but the blaze has been deemed suspicious and Texas County Sheriff James Sigman said it is under investigation.
Houston Rural personnel responded to calls twice the previous day, first at about 4:30 p.m. to a report of a grass fire at 6055 Highway Z west of Houston on property owned by Cody Ice Jr.
Later that evening, firefighters from Houston Rural and the City of Houston departments responded to a blaze in the woods behind the Walmart Supercenter.
Also on Tuesday, crews from Plato and Roby were called that night to a report of a structure fire at 12500 Bell Road.
Personnel from the Tyrone FD responded twice on Tuesday to locations near Elk Creek, first at about noon to a tractor fire at 2780 Victor Road, and again just before 3 p.m. to a grass fire at 3036 Stultz Road near Elk Creek.