Fire Consumes Garage, Flames Shoot Up 4 Stories High

SAN ANGELO, TX — Minutes before 7 p.m., a loud explosion was heard, and flames shot up four stories high above the established neighborhood in the 600 block of N Parkway St. Parkway intersects with N. Howard and the Houston Harte Expy access road, known as Dallas St.

From our investigation and from talking to neighbors, the loud explosion was followed very quickly by flames that could be seen for miles. Two houses were involved.

The home wasn’t directly involved until flames began to move from the garage where the explosion happened. The house next door was singed by flames at its laundry room.

According to Becky Ellis, who is a neighbor, her neighbor’s husband was working on a motorcycle in the garage that sits between her house and the house affected. Apparently, when he tried to start the motorcycle, the explosion happened.

“It spread pretty fast,” Ellis said. She said within seconds she was feeling the heat from the fire from where she was at the back of her house. She put on some warm clothes and went outside to start alerting other neighbors. She said one of the men working in the garage ran out and called 9-1-1. It took less than five minutes for the fire department to arrive.

Firefighters performed an aggressive defensive fight against the fire to prevent it from spreading. There were also residences behind the garage. While the defensive measures were being applied, the firefighters simultaneously attacked the fire and knocked down the flames. In all, it took less than 15 minutes. Outside the house on the front lawn, firefighters were seen rotating into the fire and coming out to rest while fresh firefighters in full oxygen masks charged at the garage.

One ambulance left the scene with lights and sirens. We did not see who was loaded into the ambulance, but we heard the emergency was smoke inhalation.

Ellis said all of her family and pets were safe from the house next door, and she believed that at the house with the garage fire, all had escaped alive, including pets.

By 8 p.m., the battalion chief declared the fire scene under control, and firefighters began overhauling — looking for hot spots and attacking them.