Woman to be charged for starting apartment fire in NE Harris County while burning boyfriend’s clothes, officials say

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A fire that damaged 13 units at a northeast Harris County apartment complex on Monday was caused by a woman burning her boyfriend’s clothes after an argument, the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office said.

Investigators say the woman, who hasn’t been identified, will be charged with reckless arson.

She was allegedly burning the clothes on a second-floor balcony at the Southlake Villas apartments on Tidwell at C.E. King when the fire spread to nearby units.

“It spreaded way over here,” witness Mario Thompson said. “The roof had caved in. It was like stuff falling off the back. I’m like, ‘Dang.'”

Firefighters say their efforts to fight the blaze were hampered by the fact that they couldn’t initially gain entry to the apartment complex.

“The complex here didn’t have the proper gates,” said Matt Hathorn, district chief with the Sheldon Community Fire Department. “The gate was messed up, so we had to cut gates and stuff like that to get into the apartment complex, (and) get all the big apparatus into the apartment complex.”

Hathorn said firefighters also discovered the nearest water hydrants were across the street from the complex.

After initially putting out the fire, firefighters were called back to the scene Monday evening when a hotspot flared up.

“We had a wind-driven fire today, so the wind’s driving and it’s blowing. It stirs up any little ember that’s in there,” Hathorn said.

During the second firefight, a fire captain was injured when part of the second floor collapsed. He was taken to the hospital.

All of the apartment’s residents made it out safely, firefighters said.

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