HOUSTON – A man was transported to Memorial Hermann hospital after he was severely burned in a house fire in northwest Houston.
A call about the fire came in just after 2 a.m. Sunday in the 6600 block of Granite Street, the Houston Fire Department said.
When crews arrived on scene, they found a man laying outside of the home with severe burns to 60 percent of his body.
"The first thing I saw was like the big gushing of the fire of the house. Then I heard popping. It sounded like a gun was going off inside the house,” said neighbor Alexa Smith.
That man, identified as 53-year-old Francisco Estrada, was then transported to the hospital.
When fire crews were able to make entry into the home, they found a female laying inside a room, believed to be her bedroom, fire investigators said. She was identified as Francisco's mother, Celia Estrada, who just turned 77-years-old on Oct. 31.
"We ran out to see what was going on and he was like, help, help, help. He was like my mom's inside. My dog's inside. He was like help. He was just really shaken. He was really burned," Smith said.
Emergency personnel attempted to render aid to Celia, but she was already dead, the Fire Department said.
Francisco was just weeks away from retirement from the city's Waste Water Treatment facility, family told KPRC.
Investigators are working to learn more about the cause of the fire.