SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – A woman who lives in a Southwest Side neighborhood where a vacant home went up in flames overnight says she believes the fire is suspicious in nature.
Sandra Sandoval said she has never seen anyone living in the single story home that, until early Thursday morning, stood at the corner of Lark Valley and Walnut Valley.
“There’s never been a light on, you know? So I don’t think that was an accident, personally,” she said.
Arson investigators looking for cause of vacant house fire
Arson investigators who were called in to find the cause of the fire still had not made a determination as of late Thursday morning.
Woody Woodward, a spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department, said due to the amount of damage, they may never be able to figure out how it started.
Sandoval, meanwhile, is grateful the fire did not spread to her home.
For a while, though, she was concerned.
Huge flames had consumed the house and were threatening to spread beyond it, as shown in photos shared by KSAT12 viewer Irma New.
“I thought it was my backyard. And no, when I checked it was the house. We got out our kids because it’s close to where we live,” Sandoval said. “You can just feel all the heat to your face.”
She and her family were alerted to the fire at some point before 4 a.m.
“If it wouldn’t have been for a neighbor calling or knocking on our door, I don’t know, God. We don’t know what would’ve happened,” Sandoval said.
Firefighters were already at the scene by that point, battling a fire that they said seemed to have been burning for a while.
A battalion chief said when they got the 911 call around 3:15 a.m., flames already were shooting through the roof.
He said they were able to see the smoke and fire immediately after they opened their doors at the fire station, which is located around the corner on Ray Ellison.
They remained at the home for about two hours, first knocking down the fire, then making sure it didn’t rekindle.
At one point, firefighters had to knock down some of the walls of the home to make sure they didn’t collapse.