Houston Building Fire Kills Three Workers

The following story from the Houston Chronicle about a building fire that killed three people and injured at least 6 other people. Click here to read the story. Or see the story below. Houston building fire March 29, 2007 - Fire in Houston office building kills 3, injures at least 6, including 3 firefighters HOUSTON (AP) - A fire ravaged the top two floors of a six-story office building at the end of the business day, killing three people and injuring at least six, fire officials said. Authorities believe the fire broke out Wednesday in a medical supply firm on the fifth floor, but were still investigating the cause. Flames shot out of the building's top two floors, and heavy smoke blanketed a nearby 10-lane freeway during the evening rush hour. Television footage showed flames breaking through glass and fire officials guiding people down ladders to safety. Firefighters found the three bodies on the building's fifth floor, District Fire Chief T.J. Dowdy said. Two of the bodies were found in the same office, and the other was nearby. Three firefighters were among the injured, Dowdy said. Four people were taken to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, where a spokesman said one was in critical condition, two were in fair condition and the other was in good condition. Dowdy said the fire department received calls from people saying they were trapped in their offices, which were filling with smoke. "I heard people scream on the other floor, I went out in the hallway and it was filled with smoke," Dawn Herring, 26, who works for an accounting office on the fourth floor, told the Houston Chronicle. "Both stairways were filled with smoke. We all had to come back in the office. Everybody panicked for a second, but then my boss broke a window with a chair." Herring was eventually rescued by a fireman. "We must have waited 15 to 20 minutes, but it seemed really long," she told the newspaper. Roy Anderson and Larry Gill, who work at Rail Crew Express on the sixth floor, said they were outside when they heard an explosion and then glass shattering. They said they called authorities while a person driving by ran into the building and pulled the fire alarm. Before then, alarms hadn't sounded and the sprinklers hadn't gone off, they said. Jim Jimenez, owner of J Systems on the fourth floor, said he was in the atrium when he smelled smoke and then saw the fire. He left and saw the fire raging as he looked back, Jimenez said. "It looked like the entire suite was on fire," he said. "It just took seconds." Boxer Property Management Corp., which manages the building, declined to comment. Built in the early 1980s, the masonry and glass building is about 58,000 square feet. It is on the 610 Loop, a busy highway. An engineering firm and several medical clinics are listed as tenants.