Fire damages vacant Independence Heights church

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

Houston’s fire authorities are trying to determine what led to a fire that caused hundreds of thousands of damage to a vacant church in Independence Heights earlier this week, according to the Houston Fire Department. There was nobody inside the vacant church at the time of the fire and no in- juries reported, according to the department.

Crews from stations 30, 15, 31, 34, 6, 12, 58, 15, 24 and Heavy Rescue 11 responded to the vacant church at 4105 Airline Dr. just after 5 a.m. Thursday, according the department to find fire coming from the back of the church. After removing burglar bars, however, crews had to wait to enter until the fire ventilated through the church roof according

Heights house fire impacts multiple homes

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

Investigators are still trying to determine what led to a fire in the Heights last week that started at one home and spread slightly to nearby homes last week, according to the Houston Fire Department.

There was nobody reported injured in the fire, according to the department.

Crews from Stations 15, 6, 31, 9, 11, 12, 16, 30, and 62 responded to a call in the 100 block of West 10 ½ Street in the Heights just before 8:50 p.m. last Thursday, April 28 to find fire coming from a onestory house and spreading to nearby homes in the area. After crews made a defensive attack, HFD said crews were able to extinguish the fire in the main house and limit the damage to the homes nearby that had been exposed to the fire. Searches were also completed, the department said, with nobody found inside or injured. to HFD.

HFD’s arson investigators are still trying to determine what led to the fire breaking out and spreading to multiple homes, according to the department, and there has been no estimate released from the department yet as to how much damage was done to the homes.

Crews were eventually able to extinguish the fire, the department said, and did not find anyone inside while searching the parts of the church that were deemed safe.

HFD arson investigators are still working to determine what led the fire, which caused an estimated $384,000 in damage to the church property according to the department.

Police searching for alleged driver in fatal Northside hit-and-run crash

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

Police are searching for the alleged driver in a fatal hit-and-run crash in Northside that killed a woman last weekend, according to the Houston Police Department.

The identity of the victim is pending an autopsy from the county’s medical examiner, according to the department.

Police said officers responded to the scene of a hit-and-run at 500 East Little York Road in the Northside/Northline area around 12:50 a.m. last Saturday, April 22 to find the woman dead at the scene. The department said the woman is believed to have been standing in the street when she was allegedly hit by a white car that allegedly fled the scene without stopping to assist the victim.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact HPD’s Hit-and-Run unit at 713247-4072 or speak anonymously to Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.