SAFD says weather could have a played a role in five fires across San Antonio on Sunday
Treasure Godley said Sunday afternoon her neighborhood on the West Side was filled with smoke.
“It was very scary for me,” Godley said. “There’s nothing ever going on in this neighborhood, so it was definitely a shock.”
A home near hers on Laverne Avenue caught on fire after embers from a trash fire burned a storage shed down and spread into the back of that house. The San Antonio Police Department reported no injuries to the homeowners or firefighters on the scene.
This fire was just one of five that KSAT crews covered on Sunday. SAFD Battalion Chief Brad Pool said the weather is in part to blame.
“The weather’s actually kind of one of the catalysts for us,” Pool said. “All the discarded cigarette butts, kind of embers left in the barbecue pit become more susceptible to being pushed across and become the ignition source.”
Dry air and strong winds can make it harder for firefighters to stop a fire from spreading. SAFD Chief Charles Hood said the wind was a battle for firefighters trying to put out an overnight fire at an apartment complex on the North Side.
In total, 10 units of Sunset Canyon Apartments in the 2100 block of Thousand Oaks were lost. One person was taken to the hospital Sunday and treated for severe burns.
“Preliminarily, it looks like there’s a cooking fire that caused this,” Hood said overnight. “We had to go defensive on heavy fire involvement with wind gusts.”
Pool said these fires can serve as a reminder to the San Antonio community to check smoke detectors.
To see the city’s Smoke Alarm Program, click here.
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