Second-Floor Fall Injures Houston FFs Battling Residential Blaze

Sept. 26, 2020
During a search of a burning apartment complex, two Houston firefighters walked through a smoke-obscured door they thought led to a unit, but instead they fell to the second floor.

Two Houston firefighters were injured after falling from the second floor of a burning apartment early Saturday.

Crews responded to the fire at about 2:30 a.m. at an apartment complex in Houston's Gulfton neighborhood, KPRC-TV reports. When they arrived, heavy flames were coming from a second-floor unit, and the blaze had spread to a nearby building.

During a search of the complex, two firefighters found a door they thought lead to an apartment. But when they walked through, they fell through the second floor.

“It was covered in smoke,”  District Chief Jason Wells  told KPRC. "They had no way to know it, so they had to quickly react, they had to take care of each other, and we still had a job to do. Se we took care of our own, and we still had to look for all the people.”

The fall left one firefighter with a cut on her and the other with an injured ankle. They were taken to the hospital for treatment.]

“It could’ve been bad, but they are doing OK,” Wells told KPRC.

Firefighters also had to locate a water source because no hydrants were on the property. Crews located and used off-site hydrants hundreds of feet from the scene

"Everybody worked really really really hard," Wells told KPRC. "It was a great stop and a great effort by everyone here today.”