Houston firefighters killed in five-alarm restaurant-hotel blaze

I like to give a good start to the upcoming weekend but sometimes things don’t always lend themselves to the pleasant.

At least four Houston firefighter were killed this afternoon fighting a five-alarm blaze that started in an Indian restaurant in the city’s Southwest section. A press release from the offices of Houston Mayor Anise Parker and Fire Chief Terry Garrison confirmed the fatalities. A press conference is planned sometime later today at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center as soon as all families of those dead firefighters have been notified.

CNN also reported that five other people were injured in the fire at which some 160 people were called to scene.

The deaths today make 68 the number of Houston firefighters who died in the line of duty since the department became paid in 1895. These are the first line of duty deaths since May 2009. That fatality took place after a Houston fire cadet died following a four-mile run in which the cadet finished before anyone else.

Cohnway Johnson, 26, died in Memorial Herman five days after collapsing in a four-mile run during firefighter training. Johnson previously served as a firefighter in Oak Hill, Texas.

News reports say the fire department received a report of a blaze just after noon today at the Bhojan Restaurant. It is located at 6855 Southwest Freeway, near the intersection of Hornwood and the Southwest Freeway a.k.a. South U.S. Hwy. 59 South. The fire spread to the nearby Southwest Inn motel. A disco and sports bar also burned, according to the Houston Chronicle.

My Dad served for a short while as a volunteer firefighter in his younger days. He was happy to see his youngest son become a professional firefighter even though it was only for a mere five years. Fighting fires “gets in your blood,” said my Dad. Indeed it did, at least for me. I left my department on the best of terms, even helping out a year after leaving by assisting an out-of-town pumper crew that stood-by at my old station when a massive fire tapped all my former department’s resources. The fire at an International Paper plywood plant was destroyed. I later found ashes — some as large as 6-by-12 inches — from the fire in a cow pasture near my home some 10 miles away.

News such as this hits me, perhaps, with a bit more impact than the average citizen. I can’t say that for certain, just a feeling. All of this combined with Houston being only a mere 80 miles across I-10 from where I live.

Here’s hoping those others who were injured make a swift recovery. Likewise, I would like to give those surviving families of the fallen and their firefighter brothers and sisters who also are left to grieve my condolences.