PASADENA, Texas – Firefighters had to work to put out a fire at an apartment complex in Pasadena.
The fire broke out around 4:41 a.m. Tuesday at the Veranda Village apartment complex on Shaver Street near Pampa Street, authorities said.
According to Chief Fire marshal David Brannon, firefighters arrived at the complex to find a heavy fire spreading.
Brannon said a husband was on the scene and nearly 30% of his body had burned trying to get his wife out of the apartment. Firefighters were able to find her inside and get her out. She was flown to a hospital, Brannon said.
“My phone, my keys to my truck, all but what I got on, my wallet everything is still inside my apartment,” Justin Ray, a resident, said.
Even more devastating, Ray didn’t have time to save his cats.
“We had a mother cat give birth to a litter of kittens recently and they were up in the top story in the closet,” Ray said.
He said the fire started small then quickly spread.
“Suddenly, it was like a huge inferno coming out of the roof of the second story and then the wind just carried it all the way down,” Ray said.
According to Brannon, firefighters are calculating that 32 units were affected by the fire. Brannon said firefighters had to fight flames that were shooting out of second-story windows and about 15 to 20 feet into the air.
Officials said the fire started on the first floor and spread all the way through the roof. Brannon said they are still working on identifying the cause of the fire, but they believe it was an accident. Brannon did not elaborate on that statement.
The apartment complex has caught on fire before several years ago, Brannon said.
KPRC 2′s Cathy Hernandez contributed to this story.