Hot embers left on balcony causes fire that damaged 24 units at SW Houston apartment complex

HOUSTON – It was a chaotic scene when a fire started at the Terraza West apartments in southwest Houston on Wednesday night.

Authorities said the fire was caused by hot embers being left on the balcony of one of the units.

Hours later, a man who witnessed it described the scene to firefighters.

"So hot I felt the heat from the door just going out of my apartment," Amer Bader, whose apartment was destroyed by the fire, said.

Bader barely made it out of his unit when he and other neighbors did what they could to alert other residents.

"Next to my door, the door was open, that was my neighbor shouting there was a big fire in the apartment I pulled them out and we started knocking on doors," Bader said.

Before the fire was completely out, the damage was already done -- 24 units impacted, some of them destroyed.

"When we arrived on scene the fire had already got it through the roof so we cut it off fortunately everybody had self-evacuated," Deena Elliott, Houston Fire Department district chief, said.

"I heard somebody banging on my door ... when I open it, I smell smoke, so I just grabbed my daughter and ran out," Deedee Sanders said.

One of the units that was destroyed belongs to Sanders and her 1-year-old daughter, who are now counting their blessings they made it out safely.

"I'm just happy that she's safe, that's all that matters right now. That's my first apartment I just moved down here from from New York, so I don't know what's going to happen next. I have no idea," Sanders said.

As for Bader, he lost everything including important paperwork for a citizenship test next week.

That aside, he's glad to still be alive.

"Thank God I'm safe and thank God I was trying to help as many people as I could. I mean, I was shouting and telling people to go out so that helped. Thank God no one is hurt," Bader said.