The Brownwood Fire Department responded to a house fire Sunday afternoon just before 2pm in the 1000 block of Avenue C which resulted in two houses being extensively damaged.

Fire Marshal Buddy Preston stated that the fire originated in an abandoned house directly behind Academy Lanes Bowling Alley and quickly spread from there.

“The radiant heat caught the neighboring house on fire,” Preston said.

The neighbor was home when the abandoned house caught fire. She said that she heard a crackling sound outside and saw the first house on fire, so she quickly left her home.

“I lost everything, even my car,” she said as her family comforted her outside the scene of the fire.

The fire engulfed the abandoned home and spread quickly to the neighbor’s house and parked vehicle as firefighters struggled to get it under control.  At one point, flames and heavy smoke were visible coming out of the front door of the second home.

Firefighters also had to spray down a home across the street to prevent embers and debris from igniting a third home.  Smoke from the fire was visible for several miles away and flames towered over the rooftops of the neighborhood.

Officials say that the cause of the fire is unknown but is currently being investigated.  The abandoned house had been slated for demolition by the City of Brownwood.

Click the photo gallery below for photos of the fire.

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