Massive Shopping Center Fire

Massive fire burns a Houston area shopping center to the ground: Business owners left devastated

A three-alarm fire has burned a shopping center to the ground in west Harris County.

According to the West I-10 Fire Department, firefighters were called to a strip center at 22303 Katy Freeway at around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night after receiving reports of smoke off the Katy Freeway near Promenade Boulevard, KHOU reports.

By the time firefighters arrived, the blaze had already spread throughout the shopping center, leading to a third alarm. Around 100 firefighters were called to the scene to fight the fire before it was finally brought under control.

"It's hard not to break down and cry. The owner basically built an empire here and he had to watch it burn down to the ground."

Westlake FD, Katy FD and Community FD helped contain the blaze and three firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion.

Hazmat was called as the silk screening shop located in shopping center had barrels of chemicals inside. According to investigators with the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office, the fire started at one of two car shops located in the center.

Bianca Osborne, the manager of one of the businesses damaged in the blaze, said she woke up Thursday morning to several missed calls and immediately headed to the scene, KPRC reports. "When I pulled up it was way worse than I thought," she said. Osborne added that the owner of the business, Kool Karz, has operated it for more than a decade.

"It's hard not to break down and cry. The owner basically built an empire here and he had to watch it burn down to the ground," Osborne told KPRC.

Drew Wexelberg owns a tattoo parlor in the same center and called 911 when he smelled smoke from within the shop he opened in October. "My brand new business that I just spent all my money on looks like it is pretty much destroyed," he said.

Several cars were damaged in the blaze but no injuries were reported. Although the cause of the fire is unknown, arson investigators visited the scene Thursday morning and do not believe it was intentionally set. The investigators will return in a few days to determine the exact cause of the blaze.

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Let it snow?

Significant snowfall and hard freeze predicted for Houston

Photo by Lynn in Midtown

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The Bayou City is no stranger to chilly temperatures, but actual snowfall is pretty rare. Still, that is exactly what's on tap for the evening of Monday, January 20 and the morning of Tuesday, January 21.

The experts at Space City Weather just shared their forecast for the next few days. Here it is:

At this time it looks like most of the precipitation that falls early next week will probably be snow. For some areas south of Houston, particularly in Brazos and Matagorda counties, there may be more sleet or freezing rain. It’s not clear where that transition will occur, but it is entirely possible that Houston wakes up on Tuesday morning and there are 3 or 6 inches of snow on the ground. This would be the most snow Houston has received in at least two decades.

If prior snowfalls are any indication, travel across the Houston area will be difficult at best until things warm up on Wednesday and Thursday. Start preparing now to be hunkered down for a couple of days.

CultureMap has previously shared tips for how to prepare for a hard freeze. See them all here. A few highlights related to people, pets, pipes, and plants include:

Bring pets inside. They can suffer from hypothermia just like people can.
Check and wipe paws after walks to protect against harsh weather and salt after outdoor walks.
Cover plants with blankets. Adding incandescent lights under the blankets will raise the temperatures on the ground and around the plant
Cover pipes with insulation or old towels and and wrap with duct tape, and faucets with covers (found at any hardware store) or duct tape and towels.
Inside, open cabinets that house plumbing fixtures to allow hot air to get into cabinets and let faucets trickle if they face an outside wall on the other side.

Thankfully, Space City remains optimistic that ERCOT will be able to generate enough power to keep the grid flowing. If that's the case, power outages would be localized to areas where lines get damaged by snow or ice. "At this time we don’t anticipate major power disruptions during the winter storm, but certainly that is not something we can guarantee," they write.

With proper preparation, we can all weather the storm. And maybe even snap some fun pics of the snow like we did in 2021.

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