Firefighters say conditions were too dangerous to put out a Fort Worth house fire Thursday morning.
It wasn't the weather or wind.
It was the fact firefighters thought an alleged armed car thief was hiding nearby and willing to shoot them.
The story began Thursday morning when a Tarrant County crime task force tracked a wanted car-theft and drug suspect to the 300 block of Haltom Road.
Police came to the door and someone inside the house was firing a gun.
It's unclear if the person was shooting at the officers, or shooting indiscriminately. Police also noticed a fire that was starting to burn from inside the house.
As the flames tore apart the house, police retreated and called for tactical units to set up a perimeter. Officers also told firefighters go inside to put out the fire because they were concerned the fire was a trap to lure police and firefighters and cause them harm.
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Police told firefighters there was an armed, dangerous man who was firing a gun inside the home. So, officers asked firefighters to put bullet-proof vests under their bunker gear and to wait until the SWAT team could give them an escort.
"This is one of the first times in recent memory where we had crews move in and begin suppression operations only under protection from SWAT," said Fort Worth Fire Lt. Kyle Falkner. "It's primarily geared towards an active threat, which is exactly what this situation was at first."
The fire grew so large it kicked up a few other small grass fires, and possibly a few car fires on the property.
But first responders say they had reason to think a shooter was lurking close, and it was too dangerous to go in unprotected.
"Our SWAT team will always go in with them to protect them to provide protection," said Fort Worth Police Sgt. Marc Povero.
Before the fire broke out, police detained one man who ran out of the back of the house with a gun. A SWAT officer shot him with a large-caliber foam bullet.
"Any time somebody runs out of a house with a gun, knowing that officers are there, we’d consider that a threat," said Povero. "Evidently, the officers didn’t feel their lives were threatened enough to use deadly force, but they did want to neutralize the person before they could threaten officers or anybody else in the neighborhood."
Two other people in the home cooperated with police.
The man detectives wanted to find, though, apparently got away. Officers aren’t sharing his name, but they say he has a long criminal history of gun violence and car thefts.
When police find him, he faces possible arson and narcotics charges, assault charges and auto-theft charges, as well.
