HOUSTON – Houston Fire Department battled a massive fire that broke out at a Galleria-area apartment complex Tuesday evening. Crews were still on scene Wednesday evening.
Nearly 100 residents are out of their homes and still unable to see if any of their belongings are salvageable.
As night fell Tuesday, so did the flames at the Palms on Westheimer. Apartment residents came home trying to see what was left.
"They won't let us go in," resident Porscha Pichon said. "They won't let us go in. All I can see is smoke. I can't see anything. So I'm not sure what is left."
Pichon and her three children live in building 20. Firefighters said the fire destroyed more than 30 apartments in buildings 18 and 19. Residents quickly added up the damage. The fire produced smoke dark enough the turn daylight into darkness.
Unable to access her apartment, Pichon and several others had to find shelter elsewhere for the evening.
"From what I hear, it's going to be a couple of hours," Pichon said. "It might even be all night before we're able to go inside."
She was one of dozens of residents lined up outside the complex's management office seeking assistance from the Red Cross.
"They just gave him some toys to kind of keep him busy and a blanket because he kept saying he was cold," Pichon said. "This is normally around the time when we eat.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital for a checkup after facing the heat and smoke. He was expected to be OK. No one else was hurt.
"Anytime you have a complex this size and it gets into the attic, you have a lot of area where the fire can travel," Houston Fire Department Capt. Ruy Lozano said
Levi Bryant and Arsheena Taylor left without shoes. They said a brave firefighter saved their lives.
"I pulled her out," Bryant said. "He was like get out of here...you got to go. The only thing I was able to grab was a T-shirt and run outside."
"He ran in and got me and I am just so thankful that he was here and my kids weren't here," Taylor said. "They were away at daycare. We are lucky people right now."
With electricity shut off at the entire complex, not everyone was forced out because of damage. One couple and their puppy Lola decided to go to a friend's home until power was restored.
"You don't know what to do when you're in that type of situation," Keanna Manning said. "I was like, 'I don't know what to grab.' So I grabbed my dog because I didn't know what to get.
HFD arson investigators will determine the cause of the fire.