Firefighters were called to the house on Oak Knoll Drive about 7 a.m., Fire Chief Brian Riley said. Four people were in the home when the fire began: a husband and wife, their daughter and their adult grandson.
The two women escaped unharmed, and Riley said firefighters had to restrain one of them from running back into the home to try to rescue the men.
Neighbors have identified one of the missing men as 79-year-old John Andrews, who served as mayor from 1973 to 1979. Relatives identified the grandson as Bob Wayne O’Neal, 33.
The bodies had not been officially identified late Thursday.
Frank Whitmire, who served as mayor from 1971 to 1973, said Andrews had stayed out of the public eye in recent years and was writing a book about his life.
“I was looking forward to reading what he had to say,” said Whitmire, who lost his re-election bid to Andrews. “He had a manuscript. I suspect all that got destroyed.”
Part of the home collapsed during the blaze. Firefighters had tried to enter the house to fight the flames but backed out because the heat was too intense.
“The fire was progressing very fast,” Tarrant County Fire Marshal Randy Renois said.
One firefighter was taken to Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine for heat exhaustion.
The cause of the fire is being investigated. One of the women who escaped told investigators she saw flames in the kitchen, Renois said.
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