Crews Battle Flames, Heat Monday Afternoon

By ABC-7 Reporter Martin Bartlett

EL PASO, Texas – No one was hurt in a fire at an vacant house on Paisano Drive at Central on Monday afternoon, fire officials said.

Damage is estimated at 70-thousand dollars and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

“It fully involved a structure and part of a storage in the rear the … concern was for the apartment that was adjacent to this home,” said John Concha of the El Paso Fire Department. “fire crews were were quick to make sure they protected that home”

Crews were able to get the fire out before it could spread to any other buildings nearby.

Just as much as firefighters were battling the flames this afternoon, they were also battling that triple digit heat.

Temperatures hovered around 110 degrees in the area.

As they were fighting the flames, firefighters have to wear about 100 pounds of gear, add that to this heat, and that takes a real toll on the crews.

That’s why the Red Cross was there as well making sure fire crews have bottled water and snacks to stay well-nourished.

It was so hot, firefighters even called for a sun metro bus just to have a place to cool off.

“The high temperatures, these triple digit temperatures are a great problem for those firefighters,” said Lt. Mario Hernandez.

“You have to imagine these guys carrying 100 pounds of equipment and it adds a lot of stress to the body so we want to make sure we have enough firefights, a fresh crew, so we can rotate them on a regular basis to fight these fires inside.”

No firefighters were hurt battling the blaze and no body was in the building that burned.