Two firefighters were injured Saturday morning while battling an apartment fire in Houston’s Gulfton neighborhood, officials said.
The fire was first reported around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at an apartment complex in the 5700 block of Glenmont Drive, near Alder Drive. En route, fire crews observed a heavy column of smoke rising from the complex and on arrival they found heavy fire coming from a unit on the second floor of a building in the complex. A secondary building nearby had begun catching fire.
Firefighters could not locate a hydrant on the property. They had to use water from hydrants off-site hundreds of feet from the fire, District Chief Jason Wells said.
Two firefighters were injured while searching for civilians in the building, Wells said. The firefighters saw a door that looked like another apartment. When they stepped through the doorway, they fell from the second floor, Wells said.
“It was covered in smoke,” Wells said. “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.”
One firefighter suffered a laceration on her head and the other an ankle injury. The firefighters were taken to an area hospital for assessment and treatment.
“It could’ve been bad but they are doing okay,” Wells. “They are stable. They’re doing excellent. They had care immediately. Everybody worked really really really hard. It was a great stop and a great effort by everyone here today.”
No civilians were injured in the fire.
Arson investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.