MEXIA (October 22, 2012)—Three vacant houses burned to the ground and a fourth sustained damage in a Sunday night fire just west of Mexia.
Mexia Fire Department Training Officer and EMS Director Mike Clements said firefighters from Mexia, Lake Mexia, Mexia State School, Wortham and Tehaucana battled the blaze for more than three hours before it was declared out.
The first units to arrive just before 7:30 p.m. Sunday on Farm-to-Market 2838, about four miles west of Mexia, reported one house fully engulfed and the houses on either side beginning to burn.
The older houses, all wood frame, burned quickly and could not be saved, Clements said.
A fourth house suffered damage when the roof caught fire but firefighters were able to contain that blaze to the roof.
Clements said the biggest problem fighting the fire was a lack of a water system, so the volunteer departments had to set up a supply line using their tankers to get water to the pumpers.
The destroyed houses all were owned by the same man, who also lives in an adjacent home.
Clements said no cause for the blaze has been established.
