Firefighters save half of home

HOUSTON — Firefighters Wednesday evening stopped a fire from completely consuming a house on Debra Jean Circle.

Debra Jean Circle intersects the Parks Highway at Mile 54, across from Loon Lake. Firefighters were called at 8:13 p.m.

“Other residents on that street were reporting that the mother and young child were still inside that structure,” said Christian Hartley, spokesman for the Houston Fire Department.

Since it wasn’t clear that the structure was empty, firefighters aggressively fought the blaze.

“That initial attack crew that went interior knocked down the bulk of the fire, did an initial search of the interior,” Hartley said.

They didn’t find anybody, but did see that the fire and water had started to make the ceiling sag.

“As they backed out the front door, which is where they had come in, the ceiling collapsed behind them,” Hartley said.

He said the crew took a calculated risk to enter the fire, but maintained vigilance as to their surroundings.

“That’s what makes them good firefighters,” Hartley said. “Being able to just know what’s going on around you.”

Hartley said that because the fire was knocked down so quickly, the home was at least partially salvageable.

“Because of that quick knock on the fire we were able to save everything in both bedrooms, the closets, the laundry room and the restroom,” he said.

He said that the renters who lived there were upset to have lost so much of their stuff and to have been left homeless — the Red Cross helped out on that front. Because of the smoke, though, all the clothes and things that tend to hang onto smells will have to be washed. Probably multiple times.

“Anything that has been exposed to smoke from a house fire is extremely dirty,” Hartley said.

Firefighters, though, consider it to be a good save. Hartley couldn’t say where the fire started or how. He said the fire marshal is investigating.

“The area where the fire started and some reports from the neighbors give us reason that we want to turn the scene over to the state fire marshal’s office,” Hartley said.

Houston got help on the fire from the Central Mat-Su, West Lakes and Willow fire departments. Hartley said there were seven tankers on scene as well as an engine and some department SUVs.

Unlike a lot of Valley communities that either have fire hydrants or rely on water bodies like lakes and rivers, Houston uses powered pump stations. There are two in the community with plans for a third to be installed this summer. The stations can fill a tanker in four minutes, pumping water from a reserve tank at 1,000 gallons per minute.

“It makes for a really rapid turnaround. Instead of having to commit a fire truck to a lake, one person can fill up a truck.”

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