DICKINSON, Texas – At least six people are without a home on Monday after a fire ripped through a Dickinson neighborhood, officials said.
The fire started at a home near Bayou Bend Drive at 3 p.m. and then spread to at least three other homes along Dickinson bayou on the east side.
Around 3:30 p.m., one burning house collapsed.
As of 4:45 p.m., fire fighters are battling the multiple fires.
It is unknown how the fire started at this time.
Neighbors tell KPRC 2 several pets have died.
Zeke Adair lives directly across from the home that was destroyed and says he first noticed something was wrong when he saw smoke while standing on his back deck.
“I went on my back deck over the bayou and saw some smoke,” Adair said. “Walked to the front and saw the house was on fire and started flipping out and hoping the fire trucks would get here quick enough.”
Adair said embers from the fire were blowing across the street and even hitting him as he tried to help neighbors.
Adair and his wife also rushed across the street to warn neighbors whose home was burning.
“We had to go up there and knock them, get them out, and they took off in their cars before the firemen got up there,” said Adair.
Another neighbor, Bernard Palamera, said he was at work when he received a call from his wife telling him about the fire.
“My wife called me and she said one of the neighbors’ house is on fire and the one next door is catching on fire,” Palamera said. “I wasn’t scared at first until my neighbors started calling me, then I started panicking.”
Neighbors believe strong winds played a major role in helping the fire spread from house to house.
“I think the wind was just giving it more oxygen,” Palamera said.