Dallas Fire-Rescue responded Monday evening to a shed fire in Oak Cliff.
Four fire trucks responded to the blaze at 2110 E. Overton Road including the Oak Cliff Fire Department. The property was vacant, and the house adjoining the shed was boarded up with wooden planks.
“We thought it was a house fire,” Will Slack, Dallas Fire-Rescue battalion chief, said to The Dallas Express. “But once we got here, we realized it was the shed.”
He said the fire department does sometimes respond to fires on vacant properties, but did not want to speculate on what could have caused the fire.
The fire was mostly extinguished by 10 p.m., with a small flicker of flame able to be seen at the property. No injuries were reported, and there is no word on the amount of damage.
Cpt. Melanie Forbes-Scott of Dallas Fire-Rescue was investigating the fire as the situation wound down. She told The Dallas Express that the fire was currently considered “under investigation.”
“But there is no property owner,” Forbes-Scott said.
Vacant building fires are common, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.
“Fire is intertwined with abandonment as both a cause and an undesired side effect,” the agency’s website reads. “Abandoned and vacant structures can be extremely treacherous to firefighters, as they lack structural integrity and may contain other hazards.”
Between 2011 and 2015, fire departments nationally responded to more than 30,000 structure fires at vacant properties, according to the National Fire Prevention Association. Half of those buildings were intentionally set ablaze, far above the 10% of all structure fires.
Just last month in Dallas, Fox 4 reported fires at two vacant hotels. Nobody was injured, but several homeless or vagrant people had to be escorted away from the property. Last week, WFAA reported a fire at a vacant building in West Dallas, which is also under investigation.
