Major apartment fire in Wharton, Texas
Last edited Wed Jun 15, 2016, 12:55 AM - Edit history (1)
I was awoken by sirens around 7 p.m. and one of the buildings was on fire at the Briar Pointe Apartment Complex which is about 50 years old. The suspected cause of the fire was a faulty air conditioning unit that was recently installed.
Fire departments from Wharton, El Campo, Needville, East Bernard, Hungerford, Richmond, Rosenburg, Glen Flora, Eagle Lake, Boling and Fort Bend County are on the scene. 60 apartments were destroyed as the fire spread throughout the common attic area. The fire is contained to one building, but they are still unable to extinguish the fire.
Several firefighters are being treated for heat exhaustion since the temperature was nearly 90 degrees prior to the fire being reported. One person outside had a heart attack while a second person was being treated by EMS for smoke inhalation and shock.
I live across the street about 100 yards from the building that is in flames, but don't appear to be in any danger. There are videos posted at the Wharton Jounral-Spectator Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/journalspectator/
I'm going back outside to observe some more, but will check in later.