A huge fire in the 9400 block of Timberleaf Drive could be seen throughout Lake Highlands Wednesday.
Update 1.23: A firefighter was hospitalized with burns after fighting a Wednesday night fire. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans says he has been released and that the injuries are minor. In addition to the injury, this fire presented particular problems for firefighters:
“There were several challenges involved in fighting this fire. Fire crews dealt with everything from downed power lines to low visibility to the overall size of the building, but things really got interesting when reports of nearby grass fires, resulting from embers being carried from the fire by the high winds, began coming in. In fact, there were two such cases reported, but crews were dispatched and quickly extinguished them before they became any real threat.”
A five-alarm fire Wednesday night destroyed a block of condominiums near Forest Lane and Abrams. The majority of the units were vacant, Dallas Fire-Rescue representatives said, though the Morning News reports that crews rescued at least one woman and her pet.
The blaze was so bad that neighbors on the other side of the street suffered effects of smoke inhalation and feared for their property as wind gusts blew embers onto front yards and rooftops, according to a WFAA report.
At one point the fire was so intense that the 100 or so firefighters involved were forced to temporarily pull out of the burning buildings, DFR Jason Evans told the News.
The cause is still under investigation.
Photo from neighborhood resident Jennifer Voss
The location is just a few blocks from the site of a condominium fire last year that killed firefighter Stan Wilson.
This five-alarm blaze broke out only moments after firefighters extinguished a smaller apartment fire in the Vickery Meadow area just outside Lake Highlands.
