LACY LAKEVIEW, Texas — A Lacy Lakeview family awoke to devastation on Sunday, May 19 after flames from the city's volunteer fire department's active burn training at an abandoned home next to theirs spread and caught the exterior of their home on fire.
"I felt the heat as soon as I opened the door to the bathroom and I looked out the window and the Venetian blinds had melted," said Susan May, who was home with her husband John at the time.
As the fire spread, a police officer in the area ushered the couple out of their home, after he was alerted by their daughter Brandy Zinz that they were still inside evacuating their pets as the flames spread.
John May said the neighborhood was given a week's notice of the training by the City and Fire Department with flyers. He said even then, the situation did not sit right with him.
"I even told my wife that this is not going to work, but they reassured us that everything was going to work out and 'they've done this before' and stuff like that," May said.
May said they contacted their insurance company the next day and the City sent out an inspector to give them an estimate of the damages.
6 News reached out to the Lacy-Lakeview Fire Department as well as the City Secretary's Office and city hall for comment on this story but have not heard back.
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