HOUSTON – A raging fire forced a family in the South Acres neighborhood out of their home just hours after they got electricity back on Tuesday.
The fire happened around 8:30 p.m. on Palisade Drive near Cullen Boulevard right after a utility crew came to fix a neighbor’s sparking power line.
“It had a lot of memories,” said Katherine Newsome, who grew up in the home six decades ago. “It’s going to be missed.”
Her granddaughter saw the smoke and flames then helped everyone, including the dogs, to safety.
“Everything just started exploding and getting worse,” granddaughter Syria Brightmon said. “It hurts seeing the house like this.”
Just before the fire started, a neighbor two doors down said she had problems with her electrical lines and a utility crew had just left.
The neighbor who didn’t want her name used shared cell phone video of an electrical line sparking in her backyard about an hour before the fire.
A day earlier, right after Hurricane Beryl hit, she said she reported a tree in her power lines and a live wire possibly down to CenterPoint Energy.
When the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon, she said so much voltage came into her home which required her to wear a rubber glove to avoid being shocked. The wire was still down and sparking, she said.
That’s when she called CenterPoint back and said a crew came out, eventually cutting part of a wire connecting her house to the utility pole.
“Right after they left from her house, ours went up into flames,” Brightmon said. “I don’t feel like it’s a coincidence.
CenterPoint Energy told KPRC 2 it is investigating and will connect with the customer for more information.
“It just doesn’t sit well with me to have a live wire anyway,” Houston City Councilwoman Carolyn Evans-Shabazz said. She represents the district.
She’s been told a live wire may have factored into the fire, she said, but faulty wiring hasn’t been ruled out.
“There needs to be, after this is done, a concerted effort by CenterPoint to actually address these wires,” she said.
The neighbor with the sparking line said despite the street having power, her home does not after having the line cut so she’s found somewhere else to stay for now. She’s still trying to figure out how to pay for and make the necessary repairs.
“It was a bad situation,” Evans-Shabazz said. “They certainly need resources. They certainly need help.”
Newsome’s family doesn’t have insurance and is now looking for a new place to call home.
“I guess everything happens for a reason,” Brightmon said. “It’s time for a new beginning.”