Cause of fire Aug. 4-5 unlearned

By Alexandria Randolph

Highland Lakes Newspapers

Firefighters were called back to the site of a house fire in Smithwick Mills on Friday morning, Aug. 5, after the blaze from the night before rekindled.

First responders said Friday morning that the cause of a house fire in the 100 block of Bonnie Lane on Thursday night, Aug. 4 just after 8 p.m. is still unknown.

“We didn't turn it in to the State Fire Marshals for investigation,” said Michael Phillips, Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department Chief, adding that since the owner didn't have insurance, it was unlikely he would have “burned up his belongings for nothing.”

Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department Asst. Chief George Tennison said the call came out through dispatch at 8:13 p.m. that evening, leading first responders down County Road 343a to the community of Smithwick Mills.

“I was just getting ready for bed. Little did I know I wouldn't be going to bed,” he joked.

Tennison and other members of the Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department arrived on scene to find the mobile home completely engulfed in flame.

“It was a mobile home with a roof over it… I'm not sure where the fire started. It was fully involved when I got there,” Tennison said.

The occupants of the house were at home when the fire started, but Tennison said it isn't known what caused the fire. No one was hurt, he said, but the house was razed to the ground.

The fire rekindled in the remnants of the home at 7:09 a.m. on Friday morning, and firefighters returned to the scene to extinguish it once again.