Firefighters and a neighbor on Wednesday rescued four young girls -- the eldest of whom is 12 -- who may have been left home alone when their southeast Houston house caught fire.
Twin 8-year-olds were pulled from the burning house in the 3000 block of Nita by firefighters. Two other girls, 6 and 12, were rescued by a neighbor before the Houston Fire Department arrived.
The fire broke out at 10:10 a.m., according to HFD District Chief Fred Hooker. The flames were extinguished about 20 minutes later.
Hooker said the twins were rushed to Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital. The girls were suffering from smoke inhalation and were in critical condition, but they a have good chance at survival, said HFD Capt. Ruy Lozano.
A neighbor, Curtis Mitchell, said he helped two other girls escape the home unhurt before firefighters arrived. Lozano said they were taken to a nearby hospital by a relative.
Lozano said it appears the girls were alone in the house when the fire broke out.
Alvin Hebert, who lives across the street from the family, said the girls live in the home with their grandmother. He said he saw the firefighters carrying the twins out of the home through heavy smoke. The girls were limp, according to Hebert.
His friend, Haymon Parker, said the girls' grandmother had recently been making improvements to the house.
Rookie well-trained
Rookie Richard Mackert was one of the firefighters who helped rescue the girls.
Lozano said that when Mackert entered the home, he immediately encountered blinding thick smoke in the hallway near the front door.
As he had been trained, he walked forward slowly, shuffling his feet to make sure no one was on the floor in front of him.
When his boots nudged into the twins, he grabbed them and helped carry them outside to the front yard.
Lozano said they were unconscious and not breathing until Mackert and other firefighters helped revive them. "He remembered his training," the fire captain said.
Mitchell said when he saw the smoke, he rushed to the home and grabbed the children, who were just inside the front door.
His godchildren
He said he has known the family for years and the girls he helped are his godchildren. He wasn't thinking about the danger when he helped them out of the home. He just did what had to be done.
"I'm not a hero," Mitchell said, "just a neighbor."
Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the blaze.
Tony Freemantle and Nick de la Torre contributed to this report.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
