SAN ANTONIO – Three people, including a woman who pushed out a window air conditioning unit, safely escaped a fast-moving two-alarm fire that heavily damaged two homes Monday afternoon on the city’s West Side.
San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood said the initial call for the fire in the 3100 block of Neptune Street was reported around 12:15 for power lines down. Within minutes, authorities received multiple calls to 911 for a car on fire between two houses in a carport.
Hood said three people in one of the homes were watching TV in a bedroom when the cable went out. A man went out to his kitchen and discovered it on fire. He and a woman then escaped the home safely. Their granddaughter, who was described by Hood as a young adult, was trapped by smoke and heat in another bedroom when she pushed out the A/C unit to escape through the window. None of the residents were injured, but one dog, possibly two, died in the blaze.
The fire damaged two homes “probably beyond repair.” Hood said, “they were fortunate it wasn’t windy, or we might have lost more houses.”
While it wasn’t windy, firefighters had to battle the fire during an early summer heat wave. The temperature at the time of the fire was 96 degrees with a heat index of 102 degrees. The intense heat concerned Hood about the “rehab of firefighters” who he said are being monitored for vitals because they have a long shift ahead of them.
“These firefighters gotta work the rest of this shift,” he said, adding that “(we are) pumping fluids into them making sure they can go back into service.” No firefighters were injured, he said.
There was no early indication on what caused the fire, but the car is a possibility, Hood said.