A Grand Prairie family's vacation ended early when their supposedly vacant home caught fire Thursday night.
Authorities said the two-alarm fire started shortly after 11 p.m. at the home in the 5900 block of Crestview Drive. The woman who lives there tells NBC 5 she had taken her kids to San Antonio for spring break, but turned around when they found out about the fire.
A neighbor alerted police to the fire.
“Some neighbors heard commotion outside and came out and noticed the fire. One of the guys next door, he reported he saw somebody upstairs. We came up and searched the upstairs and didn’t find anybody,” said Grand Prairie Assistant Fire Chief C.J. Grippin.
Grippin said the fire started in the master bedroom downstairs and spread to the bathroom. There were drawers and a mattress out of place, and he said that’s why this fire appears to have been set to cover up a burglary. That also makes their job harder.
“Fire damages the evidence. Obviously you set the fire to hide and cover up evidence once it is set. And we come in and put water on it, the crime scene is disturbed and it’s hard to get things straightened out,” added Grippin.
