A downtown fire in Houston, TX will seemingly make for movie material sometime in the near future. In the latest viral video to make the rounds, amateur footage depicts a harrowing escape from a towering inferno that could have ended in disaster.
Local resident Lash LaRue spoke with local reporters and stated he was installing phone lines somewhere on the fifth floor when a crashing noise occurred and the ceiling collapsed into flames. The fire was initially called in around 12:30 pm, in the early afternoon. Merely an hour later and the call was upgraded to a five-alarm response, requiring virtually every officer in the immediate area to battle the blaze.
According to local sources, the massive blaze that took place in downtown Houston was apparently sparked by a welding accident. The towering inferno occurred within a $50 million luxury apartment complex that was undergoing construction. What happened next is straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Watch the video here
An amateur cellphone video recorded by Karen Jones depicts a construction worker trapped by the rapidly destructive blaze. It depicts the construction worker frantically arranging his own escape route at the fifth-story of the building as firefighters rush to retrieve him in time. Just as the blaze threatens to consume him, the worker daringly swings below to the balcony below.
In the nick of time, responding firefighters were able to reach the worker with a fire ladder. As the worker scrambles to safety aboard the tower, seconds later, part of the roof from the burning building collapses. It’s easy to believe that had the worker remained in the area any longer, the video would have turned out far different.
Karen shot the video from her adjacent office building before employees similarly evacuated the area. Local reports indicate there were several traffic accidents in the ensuing chaos of the fire, leaving Houston Auto Accident attorneys busy fielding calls most of the afternoon. High winds in the area caused the fire to spread, risking destruction to neighboring buildings.
Karen Jones and her coworkers reportedly felt the heat traveling to their office building and decided it was time to evacuate. Parts of their conversation can be heard in the cellphone video, up to the minute that the office employees conclude the inferno is out of control.
Fortunately, there were no reported deaths related to the incident. All construction workers present at the time of the accident were reported alive and well, with virtually no injuries to speak of. The real casualty here is the building itself, which reportedly was reduced to rubble on Tuesday.
The more than 200 responding Houston firefighters who battled the blaze are largely responsible for the safety of workers and residents. The community is now working to thank responding workers by offering big freebies – a local BBQ joint offered free meals to all current Houston FD workers this week.
While the fire remains under considerable investigation, officials believe a welding accident near the roof of the luxury apartment building was responsible for the blaze.
