HOUSTON – Houston firefighters battled a large fire in north Houston Thursday morning that heavily damaged one home and then spread to three others nearby.
Houston firefighters were on the scene in the 4100 block of Averill Street Thursday morning as heavy smoke billowed from the roof and flames could be seen shooting out from one of the roof peaks.
"I went from being asleep to running out of my house," Pedro Garza said.
Garza, who lives next door to the heavily damaged home, said he grabbed his dog and ran out of his house.
"We're safe. That's all that matters. All this other stuff will get replaced," Garza said.
No one was hurt. It's unclear whether anyone was inside any of the homes when they caught fire.
Garza and some of his neighbors said as the temperature dropped, so did their water pressure.
"It was really engulfed in flames. It was billowing out. You could see it to where it was jumping out onto the other house and I know they kinda had to grab stuff and run out," Veronica Cruz, whose house was also damaged, said.
Firefighters said the drop in water pressure made it harder to put out the fire.
"They also had trouble with the hydrant pressure. There was very low hydrant pressure. So, that's the reason why we had additional units in here so we could bring additional resources ... water from other areas ... from other hydrants in the neighborhood," Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña said.
More firefighters were brought in to help keep the fire from spreading.
One fire truck ended up in a ditch.
The man who lived in the destroyed home told firefighters that he discovered the fire on his porch.