Around 2:30 this morning, a structure fire broke out on County Road 4637 in the Dunlay area.
SAN ANTONIO — First responders from two fire stations attacked the blaze within ten minutes of dispatch reporting the fire. Medina County ESD 1 Fire Chief Clint Cooke says it was items beside the stove that caused this blaze.
“The family woke up to the smell of smoke in their house,” Cooke said. “They didn’t have any smoke in the house but they could smell it.”
That’s because the fire was coming from the family’s attached garage. The Castroville and Hondo fire stations worked together to attack the flames.
“They have three dogs that stay in the garage,” he said. “And they have an installed wood-burning stove. And they had it going last night.”
Cooke continues – any heat source that’s not being monitored is a risk.
“Every year, there’s fires from heat lamps or different items,” Cooke said. “That families use trying to keep animals warm, we definitely want to keep the animals protected.”
Fortunately, no one was harmed and the three dogs were able to escape the flames.
“Two years ago we just started putting on full-time staff and it’s helped reduced our response times down from over 20 minutes to consistently 10 minutes.”
The crews saw that benefit early Tuesday morning. Cooke says had the fire grown any more it would have gotten into the main portion of the home.
“We were pleased with the response, and so was the family,” he said.