“Flames kept getting stronger and bigger, and I could feel the heat,” a neighbor said.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio’s Code Enforcement division was working to secure an emergency demolition order Wednesday to finish the job started by a fast-moving fire the night prior.
An aggressive blaze in the 300 block of East Huisache destroyed one 100-year-old home and caused significant damage to the house next door.
Like many in the Monte Vista Historic District, Wendy Hetzel said she was settling in for the night just after 9 p.m. when an orange glow changed everything.
“I was locking my door and I looked across the street and saw a room lit up with fire. I heard cracking and popping. I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Hetzel said, adding she immediately called the fire department.
Hetzel said the call taker asked permission to link her phone to the incident commander and she was able to share images of the flames eating away at the historic home.
“I think I was in shock because it was happening in front of my house and the flames kept getting stronger and bigger and I could feel the heat standing on my front porch from across the street,” Hetzel said. “The heat was so much!”
Hetzel said as more fire companies joined the fight, crews used her driveway as a staging area and firefighters urged all the neighbors to move further away in the name of safety.
“The winds just kept picking up and it was just so much on fire!” Hetzel said.
She said she was concerned the towering trees on the block that were catching fire would serve as a bridge of fire to bring embers to her home.
“It’s a 105-year-old house and it is all wood. I was terrified!”
Across the street, neighbor Karin Scott had similar fears.
“I came out and literally it was an inferno. These houses are so close together and there’s trees in between and that tree was on fire and I was so scared the fire would jump from house to house,” Scott said.
Of the Herculean effort by firefighters, Scott said: “These houses are old and they are built close together and I can’t believe it didn’t spread in the other direction!”
Fire department spokesman Joe Arrington said the wind driven fire was hard to fight.
“It was pretty hairy for a little while, and I thought it was going to spread, but we’re able to keep the damage to two homes,” Arrington said, adding they were working with the American Red Cross to provide assistance to residents of both structures.
Arrington said windy conditions and the closeness of the structures combined to create a formidable challenge.
“The evening wind was gusty after the sun went down and some gusts picked up, but it was more about how close some of these homes were together,” Arrington said.
One additional challenge, Arrington said, was that the house of origin had a sublevel below street grade.
“This is not something we normally see in San Antonio and that presented a little bit of a challenge, making sure we got crews down there to make sure there was no fire in the in the basement as well. Fortunately there was not because those can be kind of tricky for firefighters,” Arrington said, adding the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, neighbor Wetzel said she was comforted to find that after the fire was brought under control, firefighters stayed on scene all night long to make sure errant embers didn’t cause additional loss.
“They were amazing and I am so grateful to them because they have a fire watch. They assured me that it was okay to stay in my house,” Wetzel said. “They said, ‘We’re going to be here all night to make sure if any embers catch on fire again we will take care of it.'”
After a scary few hours, Wetzel said, “I kept getting up in the middle of the night to check on it and they were there the whole time, and I was so impressed and so thankful for the San Antonio Fire Department!”
At least one fundraiser has been established for the family whose home was lost.
While the home with less damage has already been boarded up and secured, demolition work on the more badly damaged structure may be underway within the next 24 hours.