Fire crews doused two blazes in one night after lightning strikes caused two fires in the early morning hours of June 15.
The incidents just “minutes apart” unfolded after 2 a.m. in the Thunder Rock subdivision in south Marble Falls.
“Two different structure fires in the same neighborhood, a half a mile or mile from each other,” said Spicewood Fire Rescue Capt. Andrew Hunt with Burnet County ESD No. 9.
“(They were) toned out about four or five minutes apart.”
Although the fires were in the jurisdiction of Marble Falls Fire Rescue, Hunt of Spicewood was first on the scene.
“I actually live in the neighborhood. I heard it; it woke me up; I started getting dressed because I thought more than likely somebody’s house got hit,” he said. “I respond- ed to the first one; while we were at the first one evacuating the residents, we got toned out for the second fire." The first fire on Lone Cedar Road was reported at 2:19 a.m. Hunt arrived on the scene at 2:23 a.m.
“One neighbor called 911 because he saw fire on his roof,” Hunt said. “It was raining and thundering really hard.”
“There was smoke and fire coming out of the top of the roof,” he added. “It was a family of three. … The husband was looking around the house because the power was out, so when I banged on the door, he got his wife and child out.
“He wasn’t aware that he had fire coming out of his roof.”
The second call for a house on South Ridge Trail came in at 2:24 a.m. Hunt arrived on the scene at 2:28.
Soon, other agency units started arriving in the subdivision. The home on South Ridge Trail was newly for sale and unoccupied.
Hunt said the level of flames that engulfed the structure rendered it a “complete loss.”
Marble Falls Fire Rescue, the city’s department, took charge of the first structure which had
been evacuated. Marble Falls fire officials then requested Hunt’s Spicewood team handle incident command on the vacant house fire.
Units from Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Sunrise Beach and Marble Falls Area VFD assisted at both fires.
In the meantime, Pedernales Fire Department in neighboring Travis County covered the Spicewood area for emergency calls. Hunt confirmed agencies cleared the vacant house fire at 4:59 a.m.
“No injuries to anybody. Just some property loss,” he said.
Hunt credited fellow agencies for successfully extinguishing the fires.
“You can’t run a structure fire without mutual aid on these fires out here,” he said. “You have small departments, low manpower. You’ve got to have the mutual aid out here and thankfully we do.”
Shortly thereafter, the department responded to flash flooding reports.
“By the time we’re done with that, we’re checking on water crossings,” he said. “Double Horn Creek, that was our worst one; it probably crested 10 feet above the road.
“We closed it off once we got clear of the structure fire to make sure nobody drove into it,” he added. “Rain, lightning, thunder. It was a busy morning.”
