One person was injured and flown to Parkland Hospital in Dallas after a house fire in Fort Worth Wednesday morning.[[360032231,L]]
The home in the 6900 block of Alexandria Court on the city's southwest side was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
Seven units responded to the fire, but they had to take a defensive mode due to the heavy flames, high level of material in the home and bullets.
"And we actually found bullets a couple houses down from the fire," said Lt. Kyle Falkner, spokesman for Fort Worth Fire.
Victor Torres was working at a house nearby and shot video of the fire trucks arriving. In his video you can see the high flames and hear the bullets crackling inside the home.
"The fire, I could feel the heat," Torres said. "You know maybe 60 to 80 feet away."
The bullets, heavy flames and the large volume of material inside posed potential danger to fire crews.
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"So we had to be defensive, stay outside of it and as you can see the roof did collapse during our defensive attack," Torres said.
Fortunately the lone resident, identified by neighbors as Lester Due, 78, was already out. The bad news is that he was badly burned.
"With some first, second and third degree burns to his body," Falkner said.
Torres says he was bleeding badly, but that someone pulled him farther away from the burning home.
"Somebody knocked the fence down and they pulled the old man out," he said.
For long time neighbors this was a concern for a man they say has lived there since 1979, when he moved in to care for his parents.
"We were concerned about him, he was by himself, getting older," Mary Jo Guercea said.
Guercea said she was especially concerned about the amount of stuff in his garage.
"I could see all that and thought, 'Oh my God, I hope there's not a fire there one day,'" she said. "And sure enough, that's what happened."
While the cause remains under investigation, it's a frightening reminder to keep items at least three feet away from heating sources as they could catch fire.
Fire officials recommend that residents to store their ammunition in a fire safe location, like a fire proof gun safe, as that makes it safer for them to do their job.
Due's condition was not immediately available from Parkland Hospital but he was taken by CareFlite to the facility.
