Fire severely damaged the Meadow Lakes home of Houston Fire Chief Tom Hood Friday, leaving him and his family seeking temporarily shelter from the Red Cross.
Mat-Su Borough emergency responders were dispatched to the fire at about 2:30 p.m., and by about 3:45 p.m., the main body of the fire was extinguished, leaving only spot fires inside the structure to be extinguished, according to incident commander and West Lakes Fire Chief John Fairchild. Officials didn’t yet know the cause of the fire, and didn’t have a complete damage amount estimate, Fairchild said.
Hood waited for the Red Cross with his family in a park across from the road, and struggled with tears at times as he watched co-workers battle a fire in the house he built at the property he’s owned since about 1980, when he filed a $10 homestead claim on the property that would eventually become 5401 Greensward Drive, Hood said. Two of three family Yorkshire terriers died in the fire, though neighbors managed to save the youngest one, Hood said. No humans were injured in the fire, he said.