- HFD working to contain the fire
- Fire at and around the Custom Packaging and Filling company in West Houston. (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- HFD working to contain the fire (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- HFD working to contain the fire (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- Smoke visable on the corner of TC Jester and West 18th in the Heights.
Anxious parents were relieved after picking up their children at the school district's athletic complex.
That's where 650 students were evacuated to Thursday morning when a four-alarm fire broke at a nearby warehouse.
Blanca Molina's two daughters go to that school. She says her seven-year-old was aware of the seriousness of the incident.
"La más grandecita, la más grandecita, sí. Que se preocupó y lloró mucho, y que muchos bomberos muchas sirenas." Molina said.
(Translated version: "The eldest. She was very worried and cried a lot… Many firefighters and many sirens)."
Officials with the Houston Fire Department believe the fire started at an auto repair shop adjacent to a home.
From there, it spread to a warehouse that stores pesticides and fuel additives.
Eyewitness Sasha Martinez says she heard several explosions.
"It was like bombs in the air, “Martinez said. “They were just throwing bombs in the air. It was really bad."
At one point, 175 firefighters fought the flames.
Lidany Gonzalez has lived on the same street where the warehouse is located for thirty years.
He thinks the incident should be a wake-up call.
"There shouldn’t be a huge amount of concentration of any kind of chemicals close to either residential area or a… a school," Gonzalez said.
The Houston Fire Department recommends avoiding water run-off in areas close to where the fire occurred.