KIRBY, Texas — Kirby firefighters are investigating the cause on a massive fire that gutted a two-story home late Friday.
The alarm sounded on the 3500 block of Candlebrook Lane just before 9 p.m. and the first arriving firefighters found flames shooting from several sides of the home.
“Upon arrival, we had heavy fire showing from the first and second floor and going through the roof," Kirby Fire Chief Glenn Levy said.
Levy added the home had a lot of material inside, making the fight a tough one.
“The fuel load was significant. There’s literally materials all through the house and that does make it extremely difficult, both from an extinguishment perspective and also the life safety of the firefighters," he said. "So we had to fight it from the outside."
The homeowner, who said she was away running errands at the time, said she returned to find her neighbors yelling at her that her home was ablaze.
She said nobody was in the house at the time.
Levy said the fire was so intense that the interior of the second floor completely collapsed.
“The floor essentially collapsed, so we’re hitting it from underneath and then from the top down. So right now, it’s essentially a large one-story structure because of the entire collapse, so we’ll have to get it all from down below,” Levy said, adding that he believed they would be at work most of the night tending to hotspots and making sure the building did not flare up again.
Levi said the building would have to be evaluated for the danger of wall collapse. He said the damage was too intense to speculate on a cause or damage estimate.