HOUSTON – A single mother of five is homeless Monday after the northwest Houston duplex she was renting went up in flames.
"My sister lives there with a disabled child. Now she has nothing," her brother Homer Leos said. "She got out of the house. They were banging on the door to get out of the house. The house next door was on fire."
Houston firefighters responded to the fire shortly after 1:30 p.m. Monday. It quickly spread to the neighboring home.
Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke and flames. A request for additional manpower was called in about an hour later because of the heat.
"The initial crews made an offensive attack. They went inside the structure.They did have some issues. There's a gas meter on the side of the house that was on fire at the time," Deputy Chief Blake White said.
The gas line ruptured. Firefighters couldn't turn the gas off and were forced to wait for Centerpoint crews who had to dig it up. The cause of the fire is under investigation by HFD's arson bureau. There were no injuries.