Fire guts house; firefighter hits teen

Fire gutted a San Leon family’s hurricane-damaged house that was just a few weeks shy being move-in ready, a fire official said Thursday.

The response to the fire took an odd twist when a San Leon volunteer firefighter struck a jogging teenager, but her injuries weren’t life-threatening and the firefighter wasn’t cited, authorities said.

Firefighters were called late Wednesday to a house in the 900 block of Eighth Street and found flames spreading from the rear into the attic, Assistant Fire Chief Scott Lyons said.

“The people were living in a FEMA trailer while rebuilding their house,” Lyons said. “They were just two weeks away from moving in the house.”

Hurricane Ike damaged the house when it made landfall Sept. 13.

Firefighters, with help from Bacliff, Dickinson and Texas City departments, brought the blaze under control within an hour.

Three firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion, Lyons said.

The family’s modular home provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was near the flames but undamaged, Lyons said.

While driving to the firehouse to get a firetruck, a San Leon volunteer firefighter hit a woman, 17, at 11:14 p.m. in the 300 block of 24th Street, said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, a spokesman for the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.

The jogger and firefighter, whose names were not released by the sheriff’s office, were both eastbound on Avenue D headed toward 24th Street. The teen was on the north side of the road, and the firefighter was on the south side.

“She ran right in front of him,” Tuttoilmondo said. “She had an iPod and was wearing all black. She probably didn’t hear him coming.”

The woman’s injuries were minor, consisting of “road rash,” but she was taken by helicopter ambulance to a Houston hospital as a precaution, Tuttoilmondo said.

On Thursday, Lyons said: “I checked on her this morning. She had no broken bones. They kept her for observation and she was fine.”

The firefighter wasn’t cited, Tuttoilmondo said.

By Chris Paschenko / The Daily News