DALLAS — The smoke detectors woke up Gina Harris around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
There was a smell of smoke in her unit.
She called 911 when she couldn’t get the detectors to stop.
Soon, she was standing in the street watching part of her condo complex burn.
Dallas Fire-Rescue said the fire at Parkway Quarter Condominiums, off the Dallas North Tollway between Keller Springs and Arapaho, was out by 5 a.m.
Investigators stuck around to determine a cause and some crews stayed on the scene to put out any hot spots.
Investigators ruled the fire was electrical and had started in a wall, and DFR crews had cleared out by around noon.
Harris was allowed back in her condo.
She found water damage, but the fire stopped at her next door neighbor’s unit.
Suddenly, a familiar smell and sight seeped in.
“We were like, is that smoke?” she said. “By the time we came out to the parking lot there was full-fledged fire all over again.”
DFR was called back at 1:13 p.m.
Barely an hour after they’d left, a second fire was raging.
It went to four alarms.
About 100 firefighters were called in to help.
And, DFR says it’s unclear if the two fires are related.
“This most recent fire involved an area that did not appear to have any damage from the previous fire,” said DFR spokesman Jason Evans. “That being said, we cannot confirm that it has anything to do with being a rekindle or anything to do with the first fire.”
Power had been shut off to the entire building, so the second fire was almost certainly not electrical in nature, Evans said.
“Right now, it’s believed to be unrelated to the first,” he said.
The Red Cross said about 42 units were impacted at the condo complex – some by the first fire, some by the second, and others by smoke, water or the power outage.
The agency said about 10 residents had asked for assistance, but most appeared to have a place to stay thanks to insurance or friends or family.
The Red Cross said it had not opened a shelter since there did not appear to be a need.
But anyone searching for assistance was encouraged to contact the agency at 1-800-Red-Cross.
When we spoke to Harris, firefighters had not yet allowed her back in to see whether the second fire further damaged her unit.
She was thankful for the crews on the scene, and thankful she paid attention to the middle of the night alarm she got from the smoke detectors.
“I feel sorry for a lot of the parents – they were trying to grab gifts when they went back in and then everything started again,” she said. “That was the main concern. They wanted to get some of their belongings – their gifts.”