Two homes in San Antonio have fallen victim to fires this week, leaving behind charred remnants and inquiries into their causes. Earlier today, firefighters battled a blaze that consumed an abandoned house just north of the city's bustling downtown—a structure at North Alamo Street near I-35 and Broadway that had seen flames less than a day before, as reported by KENS 5.
The San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) was on scene just after 3 a.m., with reports stating flames were visible shooting from the roof; they managed to quickly douse the fire, and confirmed that, due to the building being uninhabited, there were no injuries reported during the incident, the root of the fire still remains an unsettle mystery demanding attention for understanding, yet this was the second call within a day for fire crews to address embers in the very same location.
Meanwhile, a separate incident on the city's far South Side rendered a small house—known to shelter homeless individuals—completely destroyed after an early Monday morning fire, according to KSAT. Responders arrived at the house, located in the 700 block of Moursund Boulevard, to find it fully engulfed, with the fire having initially sparked on a mattress before catastrophically spreading to the attic and beneath the structure.
No injuries were reported amidst the searing heat and destruction the sight of SAFD Battalion Chief Russell Johnson confirmed that firefighters had a challenging task as they had to tear up the home's floorboards to combat the flames underneath, the building itself sitting on a pier and beam foundation surrounded by concrete, inside were clear signs of habitation by those with no place else to call home; the specifics surrounding what initiated the mattress fire are not yet clear.
