Crews search for victim, unaware no one was home

HOUSTON — The call that came across the airwaves Friday was the kind firefighters hate to hear.

House fully involved, woman inside screaming for help.

When that description came over their radios shortly after 3 p.m., firefighters from the Houston, Willow, West Lakes and Central Mat-Su fire departments all turned out, lining the Parks Highway at around Mile 57.5, just up the road from Houston’s city hall, with their tankers and engines and sport utility vehicles.

The smoke was visible from Wasilla; a black column dissipating as firefighters doused it with water.

Firefighters pulled the siding off the finished, single-story home and did their work next to children’s toys sitting in the yard.

But, in the end, it turns out no one was home. Firefighters still aren’t sure why the initial call reported a person screaming for help. Houston Fire Chief Tom Hood said a television had been left on. Maybe the program it was showing contained footage of someone screaming.

At some point as crews worked to put the fire out the woman who lived there showed up with her husband.

“The lady who lived there had left to an eye appointment with her husband and then they went to Walmart,” Hood said.

He said his crews were on scene in short order. The fire was on Marginal Access Road, which parallels the highway not even a mile from Houston’s big downtown fire station. Hood said his firefighters got to work immediately.

“Two of them went around back and made initial entry into the building. They made it about as far as they wanted to go without backup,” Hood said

That backup was there in minutes. The first crew had done an initial search and found no one. A second crew did a secondary search and again found no one. That second search gave firefighters their “all clear” — official word that the house was empty.

About an hour later, things started to settle down. The fire was knocked down quickly. Crews worked to make sure everything was fully extinguished. Some went home.

Hood said that had he received word sooner that no one was inside he would likely have kept his firefighters outside.

“It would have been a defensive fire,” he said. “We wouldn’t have even attempted to make an entry on that fire.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.