A mid-day fire Saturday destroyed all 24 units in the Hearthwood Condominiums on the northern edge of Lake Highlands. It took multiple ladder trucks to fight the fire, and the billowing smoke could be seen for miles.
The complex is located just behind the Pizza Inn at LBJ and Abrams Road. Forest Lane Academy is nearby, but it’s not clear yet whether RISD schoolchildren lived there. Summer tragedies, like fires and drownings, make community support harder to organize. School counselors and PTA outreach committees aren’t easily assembled to help in July.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but witnesses at the scene told fire officials that teenagers were throwing matches down a trash chute before the fire began. No one was injured, but paramedics treated several folks standing in the heat watching the fire burn. The American Red Cross is assisting the 24 families who were displaced and lost all their belongings.
