Fire destroys house; Firefighter Injured

Amarillo Firefighter Injured in Blaze
From KFDA News, Amarillo
A house fire in Amarillo Wednesday afternoon sent one firefighter to the hospital. The blaze broke out in a home in the 600 block of Fairmont St. shortly before 5 p.m. Fire officials say they evacuated one woman and her pet. They say an excessive amount of items in the home hampered their efforts to extinguish the fire.

The firefighter was take to Northwest Texas Hospital with a shoulder injury. The cause is still under investigation.
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By Janelle Stecklein in The Amarillo Globe-News
As Amarillo firefighters battled the three-alarm structure fire, they were hampered by a pit bull, lower right of foreground, in the backyard. The pit bull and another dog in the backyard “were scared to death,” Deputy Fire Chief Monty Owens said.

With Moore wrapped in a blanket donated by a woman he didn’t know, he gently stroked his 13-year-old Lab as he sat on a neighbor’s lawn Wednesday afternoon and watched bright orange flames destroy his home in the 600 block of South Fairmont Street.

More than 100 people stopped to watch the fire that started about 4:35 p.m. The three-alarm blaze sent smoke pouring into the neighborhood and forced police to block traffic on Sixth Avenue for more than an hour.

When Moore spotted smoke inside his fireplace, he grabbed a garden hose and tried to extinguish the fire. He said smoldering ashes probably caught something nearby on fire.
He continued to fight the blaze, but the smoke and heat became overwhelming.

“I finally had to leave,” he said. “I almost got it out. Just a few more minutes, I could have had it.”

Zoe refused to leave the house until Moore did. His other two dogs, one of them a pit bull, were in the backyard when the fire started but were uninjured.

“The dogs were scared to death,” Deputy Fire Chief Monty Owens said.

When firefighters arrived, they found it difficult to get around inside the home because there were stacks of items up to 7 feet tall throughout. The stacks helped fuel the blaze.

“The house is full of stuff,” fire Capt. Bob Johnson said. “You can hardly make your way through there. It makes them very difficult to put out.”

Firefighters are investigating the cause of the blaze. Moore said the home is insured and that he had a place to stay.

Smoke appeared orange-brown because of the setting sun. It was so thick it was impossible to see the home next door. A smoky haze lingered around homes several blocks away.

Owens said it was fortunate the wind died down or else other homes likely would have been damaged or caught fire.

While Moore’s home was a total loss, Owens said the nearly 30 firefighters who responded were able to prevent any additional damage.

Nearby homeowner Dora Cardoza said Amarillo police pounded on her door and told her she had to evacuate for her safety. She said she had to close her Sixth Street business, Aldaco’s Tacos, because it was in the path of the smoke. Her home, next door to her business, also was affected.

“I’m very scared,” she said. “It’s windy. It smelled really bad over there.”

Her daughter, Meliza, 11, said she could smell smoke inside the cafeteria of San Jacinto Elementary School, which is several blocks away.

An Amarillo firefighter injured his shoulder. Johnson said the firefighter, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was taken to a hospital.
Photo by Michael Schumacher in The Amarillo Globe-News