Houma Sunday Afternoon Fire Still Under Investigation

The Houma Fire Department was dispatched to a reported structure fire in the 200 block of St. Milo Street on the eastside of Houma at approximately 2:22 p.m. on Sunday, February 20, 2022.

Ladder 3 arrived on scene first at approximately 2:25 p.m. declaring a “working fire” with heavy smoke showing and fire venting out of a window on the Bravo side of the house, exposing the home next door. The fire was also venting from the roof area in the rear of the home where the fire had already burned through. A second alarm was initiated to bring a 4th engine to the scene for manpower. With workforce shortages nationwide, the city of Houma firefighters is no exception, so more help was called into the scene.

The occupant discovered the fire in a rear bedroom of the home. All occupants, including two children, were able to safely evacuate from the house, and no injuries were reported. Extended engine response times were expected due to an active parade cutting into fire department response routes at the time of dispatch.

Fire crews performed a primary and secondary search of the home with both resulting in all clear status. A firehose was initially deployed to the B side of the structure to extinguish the exposure house which had begun to catch fire. An initial knockdown was made and crews made entry to extinguish the fire that had extended into the attic and caused moderate to heavy damage to the home. As this fire was brought under control, simultaneously a second incident was dispatched for Houma Fire for a ruptured natural gas line in the area of Ezra Street.

Due to the quick actions of initial crews on the scene of the house fire, the incident commander was able to release an available crew from the scene to handle the simultaneous gas emergency.

HFD would like to thank everyone that helped bring the incident to a safe conclusion: Houma Police Department, Acadian Ambulance, TPCG Utility department, and Terrebonne Parish Communications District E-911. The incident is still under investigation.