HOUSTON — Several cars caught fire in the parking lot of a Galleria-area apartment complex Monday morning.
This happened on Yorktown Street north of Westheimer Road. The Houston Fire Department said crews got to the scene five minutes after they got a call about the fire around 3:50 a.m.
HFD said no injuries were reported. About 30 cars were impacted by the fire, at least 24 of them were a total loss.
KHOU 11's Ugochi Iloka was at the scene. By 5:30 a.m., the fire appeared to be contained.
Neighbors said the fire looked like it started from a pickup truck and spread to nearby vehicles.
"It was very scary," one woman told KHOU 11. "The most scary part was people were not waking. Like, you know we're knocking on doors, people were sleeping and it happened in the middle of the night where people were not alert."
She said her car was near the fire, but she was able to move it before the flames spread to it.
Resident Alan Morales ran to move his vehicle, which was in the path of destruction.
"We woke up to a loud bang," Morales said. "And when we moved our car, we moved them in time before the domino effect. They started one after another, one just started boom, boom, boom, going in flames," Morales said.
HFD officials said they believe the fire was accidental in nature and started due to a mechanical or electrical issue on one of the parked vehicles.
Kalam Sheik said he didn't learn about the status of his car until 7 a.m.
"My wife came in and checked because I was in a meeting, and she told me our car got affected, and then I came and saw that the car had been burned to the ground," Sheik said.
Sheik said he uses his car to get to work and now is wondering how to move forward.
"Yeah, pretty devastated but what can we do?" he said.
Investigators said getting an exact cause of the fire may take days, if not weeks.
A man shared video of the fire with KHOU 11 as firefighters worked to put out the flames.