HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A fire burned through a small home on the northeast side of town overnight. It happened just before 1am off Finch Road near Homestead. Fire crews say people were living at the home, but all of them made it out safely. The house was heavily damaged by the flames and may be a total loss.
Firefighters wouldn't say what started the fire, but arson investigators were called to the scene to look into it.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » Crystal KobzaHOUSTON (KTRK) -- Residents at a southeast Houston home had to run for their lives when a fire broke out overnight. The fire broke out on Cullen near Polk in southeast Houston around 1:25 this morning. Firefighters arrived and found the duplex on fire with the roof collapsing. A resident of the duplex says he woke up to heavy smoke and heavy flames when he looked out his window this morning. He then called 911 for help.
Neighbors initially thought the homeowner was inside at the time, but when firefighters arrived they determined that person was not inside when the fire started.
"They said the house next store was on fire so I ran out of the house. They made everybody get out of the house and they almost caught my apartment on fire," said neighbor Michael Richerson. "If they wouldn't have beat on the door, I'd have burned up."
Firefighters say the fire appears to have started on the front porch and are calling it very suspicious.
Arson investigators are looking into the cause.
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A woman in east Houston was able to escape her burning home. HOUSTON (KTRK) -- An elderly homeowner escaped a fire that destroyed her home in east Houston overnight. When firefighters arrived, they saw flames shooting out of the windows of the house on Waxahachie near McCarty. Firefighters say the homeowner's stepson got her out. She was checked out for smoke inhalation just as a precaution.
The fire destroyed the entire house. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A man was rushed to the hospital Sunday after firefighters pulled him from his burning home in northwest Houston. Flames ripped through the home on Ashmole Lane at Esther Drive. The Houston Fire Department received reports that someone was trapped inside, but officials said burglar bars slowed firefighters' efforts to get to the victim.
"They tried to make entry," said J. Evans with HFD. "This house has burglar bars on the front door, on all the doors. It also has a bar on the inside of the doors."
Firefighters eventually gained entry, but they said it was difficult to navigate through the house because of thick smoke.
Rescuers made their way into the master bathroom where they found the man in the shower with the water running. He was unconscious and not responding, officials said.
The man was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital with CPR in progress. At last check, his condition was unknown.
Firefighters believe the blaze started in the kitchen. They are working to determine the exact cause.
Neighbors tell us the injured man was a relative of the homeowner, who was not home at the time.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Two Clear Lake teens are accused of burning a cross in a family's front yard. On June 14, a driver crashed through the fence at a home and left the scene without giving information. The homeowner's nephew, who attends Clear Lake High School, reportedly learned that Zachary Neal Dollar was the driver of the car. According to court documents, the homeowner called police with the information, and then Dollar and his father gave the homeowner the necessary information and paid for the fence repair.
Two weeks later, on June 28, tires were slashed and a burning cross was left in the front yard of the home where the nephew lives.
When police initially interviewed Dollar, he denied any involvement in the incident, court documents state. But shortly after, he reportedly confessed to building the cross from old fence pickets, dousing it with lighter fluid and lighting it on fire at the home. He said Nicholas Wayne Rose Soto commited the crime with him. Both teens said the other was responsible for slashing the tires.
Dollar and Rose Soto both deny that the burned cross had anything to do with race. Instead, according to court documents, they did it in order to scare the teen because they claim he attempted to blackmail Dollar, allegedly asking for money in order to keep quiet with the information about the fence crash.
Dollar and Rose Soto, both 18, are both charged with retaliation or obstruction, a felony charge.
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HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Detectives have charged a man accused of burning his girlfriend's son with a hot spoon.
Fidel Gonzalez, 24, faces one count of injury to a child.
According to court documents, Gonzalez was living with his girlfriend at her home in the 1100 block of Birch Run Lane at the time of the incident.
His girlfriend told authorities on Sunday, Gonzalez heated up a metal spoon and allegedly burned his girlfriend's eight-year-old son with it. The spoon left a burn mark on the boy's arm.
Following an investigation, detectives filed the charge against Gonzalez. No bond has been set for him.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Pooja LodhiaHOUSTON (KTRK) -- You don't get better neighbors than some of the residents of a north Houston apartment complex. They saved a woman from an overnight fire.
Firefighters got to the complex on Northborough near Meadowfern at around 11pm to find flames shooting from roof. Six units in all were up in flames and five of those were occupied.
Residents of the complex jumped into action before firefighters arrived, some even saving the life of an elderly woman stuck on her second-floor balcony.
"We stayed on the other side. I saw smoke coming from the apartment and I heard someone hollering," said resident Anthony Cornelous. "And my brother-in-law, we had jumped the gate. The lady, when she jumped, we were there to catch her."
About 50 firefighters helped bring the blaze under control. Fortunately no one was hurt.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A family of four is safe after a fire tore through the back of their home overnight. It happened around midnight on Oxford Street near East 15th in the Heights. Firefighters arrived to find flames coming from the back of the one-story house. Crews were able to put out the fire in about 10 minutes.
The fire destroyed the back of the home. The cause is under investigation.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »There were five children inside a back bedroom in the home as smoke filled the structure Thursday evening. Neighbors say they pulled several of the children out one window, but others remained inside. That's when a pair of passing Houston police officers entered the picture.
It was a fast moving house fire that generated thick, choking smoke. Neighbors called for help and stopped two HPD patrolmen driving down the street. On Friday those two officers came back to the house to see what was left and relive the minutes that they became firefighters.
"We managed to get one corner pried," said Houston Police Officer John Domingues. "There were several neighbors right here with us."
Inside a bedroom were three teenage girls, trapped by burglar bars. While neighbors did what they could, the officers pried off one set of the bars. Officer Domingues was about to pull one girl out when he was blown out through the window.
"It was hot," he said. "Then whatever it was that blew me out was hotter."
Officer Domingues got up again and he and his partner Officer C.R. Lamunyon continued with the rescue, even as firefighters were arriving. Their response time was just over three minutes, but consider that those three girls in that room are hospitalized -- two listed in critical condition with burn injuries. What the patrol officers did helped save their lives at the time, and that comes from a fire department captain.
HFD Captain Ruy Lozano said, "They actually hoisted the original fireman that rescued the child. The house was engulfed. The fireman went in and he passed them to those original police officers. You couldn't ask for a better ending."
The house had been home to a family of six. Toni Rodgers raised her three daughters, also taking care of her two nieces. All they had is gone and the family has no insurance. Rodgers agreed to speak publicly, but not on camera.
She said, "I took two children in who aren't mine, so I feel that God is going to bless me either way it goes."
Rodgers will be spending her time now with her family at hospitals. She's worried about where they'll live next and about what will happen to the family dog.
As bleak as their outlook may be, the entire family might have died in this fire. And now two patrol officers have a new appreciation for what firefighters do.
"The worst thing that's going to happen to us is somebody throws bullets at us," Officer Lamunyon explained. "But imagine being in there with a flamethrower. That's what these young men do. I'd rather face that any day than fire."
Three young girls remain hospitalized, Rodgers' two nieces and one daughter. One girl is said to be burned severely enough that she is expected to be transferred to Shriner's Burn Center in Galveston.
(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Firefighters on Houston's south side are trying to find out what caused a Porsche to catch fire with two people inside.
Firefighters say the fire started in the rear of the car. The exact cause is unknown.
(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)Houston police say Tapia's car was found Wednesday morning outside the restaurant where she worked as a cook, the Shish Kabob Cafe II off the Katy Freeway. Co-workers saw Tapia get in the car at about 10pm Tuesday. Her body was found three hours later, burning on the side of the road inside George Bush Park.
"Very sweet, she was like a family member to us," recalled co-worker Arshia Mohammadi. "Obviously what happened was a tragedy."
Mohammadi is the manager at the restaurant. He can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt Tapia.
He said, "She was a strong woman. She didn't have any enemies as far as I know."
Police say they have talked to Tapia's estranged husband and boyfriend, and both appear to have alibis. Investigators are now reviewing surveillance video from the cameras around the parking lot at the restaurant, hoping to find leads on a suspect.
"We believe that somebody could have been walking through this parking lot and saw what happened," said Houston Police Sgt. Warren Meeler. "If she was taken from this parking lot forcibly, more than likely somebody possibly saw it."
Customers at the restaurant are slowly hearing of the tragedy. They are saddened, and some are now concerned for their own safety.
"That just seems so odd," said customer Denise Rogers. "So I'm thinking, is it someone that she knew, or is it just a random act, or what?"
Tapia's body burned so badly that the medical examiner's office has yet to be able to determine the cause of her death. Police ask that you call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS if you saw anything suspicious on Tuesday night.
(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »Emma Hernandez was scouring her usual spot near the dead end of Scranton Street looking for cans and scrap metal Wednesday, but her routine was interrupted by a police investigation.
"A body over there," she said in shock.
HPD homicide investigators say the partially burned body of the unidentified woman was found in a vacant field Thursday night. Workers at a nearby business say it was a small fire captured on surveillance cameras that first caught the eye of an outside security company. A guard there called 911. But it wasn't until firefighters arrived that authorities realized it was a woman's body on fire.
One neighbor says she didn't see anything but won't forget the smell.
"I couldn't figure out what the smell was. I've never smelled that before," she said.
"This is a dead end street so no one comes up and down this street," said nearby resident Albert Reyna.
Right now, police say they don't have much to go on but they do believe someone may have dumped the woman's body then set it on fire. For neighbors on this dead end street, it is unimaginable.
"I pray to God to get it out of my head because I am hurting for her," said one neighbor.
"I am scared," said Hernandez.
Investigators say they believe the woman was clothed and they also believe she was not homeless. So far, they say they do not know who she is or how she died. They are asking anyone with any information to give authorities a call.
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