A three alarm fire about five blocks away from me on Royalton Drive Friday night may have been started by a fire in an outdoor fireplace.
Which of course will have all of us with or wanting outdoor living rooms with fireplaces and flat screens concerned to learn just what happened.
I believe the home was located at 6306 Royalton, and was only about 8 years old. It was a beautiful brick and stone structure of 6214 square feet, very much like the new homes going up in the neighborhood. According to reports on Channels 4 and 8, a surprise party was underway and about 30 to 40 people were in the house, including children. A fire was on in the outside fireplace, which must have gone awry. According to news reports, the guests looked outside, as it was almost fog-like, so they went to check it out. Then they smelled smoke in the house, heard crackling in the chimney, then got everyone outside, including the children who were upstairs. THANK GOD NO ONE IN THE HOUSE WAS HURT.
A Dallas firefighter, however, did suffer a knee injury while fighting this fire. It took 65 firefighters, multiple crews and back-up crews three hours to battle the blaze. It apparently spread very quickly. We certainly smelled smoke everywhere, and the plumes were visible as far away as the Dallas North Tollway, though this home is located east of Preston Road.
As far as the cause, the fire department said preliminarily they suspected the fire started in the outside fireplace, but the exact cause won’t be known for a few days. I will be quite interested because I wonder —
1) Did the smoke alarms go off?
2) Does the home have fire sprinklers? Some municipalities, like Addison, require fire sprinklers on structures larger than 500 square feet.
3) What caused the fire?
4) Are outside fireplaces a fire hazard?
Our hearts go out to the owner of this home, and we hope they are well taken care of by their home owner’s insurance and friend’s generosity. Makes my heart hurt to see that beautiful home in ruins.
