Why It’s Good To Have Firewalls

A view of the cleanup after yesterday’s early-morning fire on Dickson St. west of Patterson in Magnolia Grove, to the north of the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. A single structure in a row of 31-year-old townhouses burned after what neighbors say was a large explosion.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

12 Comment

  • “To the north of The High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice” would be a better description. Thats our old amphitheatre in the background there.

  • Thanks, Gordon. We’ve corrected it.

  • Your report is the only one that gives the correct name of the neighborhood for this fire. Thank you from all residents of Magnolia Grove!

  • I live in a 1956 era condo with firewalls that extend through the roof. We saw how effective they were when we had a fire in our storage building. The blaze was contained between firewalls. Apartments built in the 1980s with common attic, on the other hand, go up like dry tinder.

  • More like the HS for turning thugs into law enforcement, tons of lively gang tags abound. Now in all seriousness, I hope the English gentleman who owned that killer 80’s lotus that wasn’t his home, or the good people I adopted my egyptian mau from (cat) they also lived right there. Hope no one was hurt, and that it wasn’t a drug lab or something…

  • It appears the firewalls in this structure did not extend through the roof line. Am I seeing that correctly? Were these firewalls more of the “fireboard” type instead of solid brick?

  • I’ll ride by there tonight after work, will report back.. I think they’re brick though.

  • I live right next door, I believe they were fireboard. His name was Ken, they believe it was suicide though. Tragedy.

  • Suicide? Very sad.

    The firewalls did pretty good, but the two neighboring units look like they sustained severe damage. Something to consider when looking to buy a townhome.

  • Wow, was this a gas explosion? Tragic in any case..

  • In the end, an amazing job by the Houston Fire Department in containing the fire! We love our HFD and HPD!

  • The house wasn’t run on gas, but they said something about him bringing in gas bottles to fuel the fire..