One person was taken to the hospital after a fire destroyed one house and damaged another on the West Side.
The fire broke out just after 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 2900 block of Tampico St., not far from SW 19th Street.
Before firefighters could put it out, the flames had begun spreading to the home next door.
A woman who lived in the home where it started said she woke up to a popping noise and then noticed the electricity cut off inside her home.
She said that is when she and her husband realized the home was on fire.
The woman said she suspected it may have started near a heat lamp that they had for their dog in the backyard.
She and her husband, along with their daughter, escaped the fire.
However, her husband had to be taken to a hospital for treatment of burns.
The flames spread to a nearby house, where a woman and her three adult sons lived.
That house had major damage to its living room and a pet parrot died in the fire, a family member told KSAT.
That family later was able to go back inside to recover a few personal items.
The home where the fire started and everything in it, though, appeared to be destroyed.
Some people ran out of the burning homes with only a blanket to shelter them from the chilly weather, while others had nothing at all.
A representative from the American Red Cross showed up at the scene several hours later, offering help to those displaced families.
It was unclear where they would be staying now, or whether the families had homeowners’ insurance.
Fire investigators were also called to the scene.
