SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio fire officials say they are investigating a fire on the city’s South Side as arson, and that one person has already been taken into police custody.
Firefighters responded to a fire around 11:45 a.m. Friday in the 1200 block of Brighton Avenue, not far from Division Avenue and Pleasanton Road after receiving a call from neighbors about a one-story home with flames.
Mark Trevino, a battalion chief with the San Antonio Fire Department, said they believe that a previous female tenant set fire to the home after being evicted. When firefighters arrived, San Antonio police already had a woman in custody.
“The fire was initiated in multiple spots, so it does look like it was intentionally set. The bulk of the fire was on a back patio, and there was a bunch of different spots, which tends happen in intentionally set fires,” Trevino said.
Trevino said ammunition was also thrown into the fire to accelerate the flames, so firefighters had to exercise caution after they heard popping.
“Popping can be anything from tires to piping to whatever, so we still exercised that caution. We got water on the fire as quickly as possible to cool it down,” Trevino said.
Fire officials say they rescued seven or eight dogs from the house, and that none of them were hurt. Animal Control Services has since taken them to get them cleaned up and cared for.
“This is kind of what we would call a semi-hoarding situation. There’s a lot trash on the outside, there’s a lot of trash on the inside, of course, we call all that a lot of content, and if that stuff catches, it’s just more fuel for the fire, rather than a well organized or less cluttered house,” Trevino said.
An arson investigation crew is now presently investigating the fire. Damage to the home is estimated at $40,000.
According to the San Antonio Fire Department website, as many as 19 units answered the call.
The name and age of the woman in custody are not currently known.