Firefighters from four area volunteer departments fought a long but unsuccessful battle against a blaze that destroyed a house early Thursday morning on Indiana Road in Houston.
Houston Rural Fire Department Chief Don Gaston said a call about the fire was received at 12:02 a.m., and firefighters remained all night and into the daylight hours in the morning.
Gaston said personnel from the City of Houston, Raymondville and Licking departments also responded, with Raymondville
With no water supply in the area, four tanker trucks were brought to the scene, with Licking bringing two and Houston Rural and Raymondville each bringing one. Houston Rural, Licking and Raymondville each brought pumper trucks.
Gaston said fire crews thought they had beaten the blaze at about 5:30 a.m.
“We thought we had the house saved,” he said, “but fire came up through a floor and we realized we were losing the battle.”
Gaston said nobody was home in the single-story homed owned by Jeremy and Shawna Foster, but their son was staying in living quarters in a large adjacent shop building and was alerted to the fire by a barking dog.
The blaze apparently began in the kitchen area on the north end of the home, but the cause isn’t known. Gaston said many household items were re moved before being burned, but a late model Chevrolet pickup parked in the garage was destroyed.
“The pickup’s gas tank exploded,” he said, “and there were a couple of explosions inside the house. I guess he had a lot of gun shells in there.”
Vinyl siding on the shop building sustained major damage, but firefighters prevented the structure from being burned.
“There’s not much worse than a big fire,” Gaston said.