SAN ANTONIO – A fire that destroyed an entire apartment building in far North Bexar County is continuing to smolder.
The fire broke out around 1 p.m. Thursday at the Cortland View at TPC apartments, located in the 4000 block of TPC Parkway.
As of early Friday morning, flames and smoke could still be seen rising from the ruins.
People who live there told KSAT they saw the fire erupt from the second floor of the building moments after they received an alert telling them to shut off their water heaters.
Firefighters evacuated about 50-60 people from that building and at least one other nearby.
“It’s been horrible,” said Irene Loera. “I’m in building 7 right next to building 6 that burned down. They evacuated us earlier. We just stood out here watching it burn.”
Loera said she also spent part of the night inside her car, even though a temporary shelter was opened up for evacuees at Johnson High School.
A fire department supervisor told KSAT Friday morning that a total of 130 apartments had been damaged or destroyed.
There also were at least seven cars parked next to the building that visibly were burned.
Firefighters say water outages in the area left the fire hydrants inside the apartment complex dry.
They had to bring in water on trucks to fight the fire.
Part of the burning building ended up collapsing late Thursday night.
So far, there have been no injuries reported.
Investigators with the Bexar County Fire Marshal’s office will be looking into the cause of the fire once it is extinguished.