South Montgomery County Apartment Fire Displaces 14 Families

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Just before 12:30pm today, South Montgomery County Firefighters (Montgomery County ESD #8), were dispatched to reports of fire in a 16 unit apartment building at the Green Tree apartments on Valleywood Drive near Budde Rd. The first crews arrived within minutes and reported heavy smoke and fire threatening to engulf the entire building. Firefighters from The Woodlands and Spring Fire Departments soon arrived and crews worked quickly to evacuate residents and contain the fire before it could spread.

EMS crews from the Montgomery County Hospital District responded and assessed three residents, but no serious injuries were reported. The Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and County Judge Mark Keough responded to the scene and worked with representatives from the Red Cross to assist 14 families that were displaced by the fire.

Investigators from the Montgomery County Fire Marshal’s Office conducted an investigation into the cause of the fire and determined that it had originated on a kitchen stove when a resident was preparing lunch. The fire spread up the wall into the attic and began to move above nearby apartments before it was brought under control by a well-coordinated effort by Firefighters.
The building did not have a fire sprinkler system as it was built decades ago before the adoption of a County Fire Code. Modern fire codes require automatic fire sprinkler systems to protect the lives of residents in multi-family residential buildings and are effective in stopping over 90% of fires with the activation of just one sprinkler head.

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