Firefighters did manage to rescue four dogs from the home, Sheldon said. It took firefighters about three to four hours to “contain” the fire.
A Brownsville family has been left homeless after a fire completely engulfed their home.
The fire occurred Tuesday morning at the two-story frame home located at West 5th and St Francis Street in the city’s west side and across the street from Skinner Elementary School and St. Joseph Catholic Church.
When firefighters arrived at the home, about 50% of the residence was fully engulfed in flames, said Brownsville Fire Chief Jarrett Sheldon.
No one was home when the fire broke out.
Sheldon said Tuesday’s strong winds forced firefighters to “adjust their operations quickly to ensure that we didn’t get any further exposures involved in the fire, so we protected the exposures and were able to put a large volume of water on that fire to bring it under control.”
Firefighters did manage to rescue four dogs from the home, Sheldon said. It took firefighters about three to four hours to “contain” the fire.
The family, who asked not to be interviewed, Tuesday afternoon was trying to salvage what they could from the home. They removed items from the residence and placed them into a nearby vehicle.
Sheldon said five fire engines, one ladder truck, a rescue truck, several chief vehicles and two ambulances were sent to the scene along with 28 firefighters.
One firefighter suffered minor injuries.
Sheldon said Brownsville Independent School District Police Department assisted the department by moving the children from the elementary school building closest to the burning house to ensure their safety.
“We did have our fire trucks in between the school and structure that was on fire. There wasn’t any major concern since once we were able to set up. We are able to contain it very quickly,” Sheldon said.
