A Grape Creek Couple Lose Their Home in Early Morning Fire

At approximately 8 a.m. this morning, Grape Creek Volunteer firefighters were dispatched to a structure fire in the 5900 block of US 87 and FM 2105. When firefighters arrived, they found a house fully engulfed in flames.

It didn’t take long for the structure to fall. In fact, the only part of the house left standing was the chimney.

“The house is a complete loss at this time,” said Jered Thomason, public information officer for the Grape Creek VFD.

Thomason added that originally firefighters thought the blaze started on the west side of the home, but when they arrived, the east side of the home was fully engulfed in flames and spread into the west side very rapidly.

“Underneath the carport was a vehicle, and inside the living room was a motorcycle. There were some unknown explosions. We don’t know what’s causing those explosions, but they were popping off pretty rapidly.”

Thomason also said luckily, no one was home at the time of the fire. The owners of the home, and older couple, were “in town” when they learned of the fire and immediately returned to watch as firefighters fought the blaze that destroyed their home.

Also, not long after the GCVFD’s arrival, they ran into some issues. Thomason said originally, when firefighters first got on scene, they ran out of water pretty quickly.

“We were out of water until Quail Valley Units got on scene,” he said. “They were able to get us water, but after that, we ran out of water again.”

Thomason said tankers from Wall, Water Valley, Carlsbad and East Concho Volunteer Fire Departments came out with their “big tankers” to assist with firefighting efforts and provide water. They ended up with six fire trucks on scene, and they had about 20,000 gallons of water running.

“Now we have a surplus amount of water we’re able to continue fighting the fire with,” Thomason said.

Firefighters also had to dispatch a San Angelo Fire Department ambulance for one of their firefighters who got hurt during firefighting operations.

“He was not transported to the hospital,” Thomason said. “He was able to refuse service and sign a patient refusal form. He’s fine.”

Thomason said the firefighter remains on light duty.

Thomason stated it will take another two or three hours to finish getting things under control. The Tom Green County Sheriff’s office will take over the investigation for this fire.