Firefighters from three departments responded Sunday morning to a blaze that destroyed a house on Kansas Lane in Houston. The cause is under investigation.
Houston Rural Fire Department Chief Don Gaston said three trucks and eight personnel from his department answered a call shortly before 8 a.m., along with one truck and three men from the City of Houston department and one truck and four men from the Raymondville FD.
“We battled this thing to try to save the last half of the house,” Gaston said. “But it was a fire underneath the floor, and you just can’t get to it. It went all afternoon without doing anything, but sometime during the night it burned on up through the floor.”
Houston Rural personnel returned to the scene Monday morning and little was left of the house.
“We pushed the walls in on the east end of it to try to keep another building from burning,” Gaston said.
The ranch-style, single-story home was owned by Bill Ramsey. Gaston said a fire marshal was contacted to investigate the origin of the blaze.
Not long after firefighters began working at the scene, a large explosion emanating from the house shook the surrounding area.
“It really rattled things,” Gaston said. “It was a huge explosion; people heard it plumb into town.”
Before firefighters were finished at the house fire, calls came in regarding a large field fire on Highway 137 south of Raymondville and a smaller brush fire on Mineral Drive near Houston.
Firefighters with the Houston Rural and City of Houston Fire Departments battle a blaze Sunday morning that destroyed a house on Kansas Lane in Houston.
“We had three things going at once,” Gaston said.
The fire on Highway 137 spurred responses from the Houston Rural, Raymondville, Licking and Tyrone fire departments.