Almost 100 firefighters battled sweltering heat and low water pressure as they fought a multi-alarm fire in a warehouse on the eastern edge of Katy Monday afternoon.
The fire was reported at a building in the K-T Bolt Manufacturing Company complex just after 1:30 p.m. and firefighters remained on the scene well into the night guarding against additional flare-ups and dousing hot spots.
The warehouse, located at 1150 Katy-Fort Bend Road between 5th and 6th streets, was completely destroyed.
No injuries were reported. Two individuals are reported to have escaped from the burning building just after the fire broke out.
Several ambulances were called to the scene as a precaution, but were not used.
According to a source at the scene, the burning warehouse was being leased out to Brammer’s Athletic Wear and contained sports apparel and equipment.
Firefighters from a number of area departments, including the Houston Fire Department, responded to assist the Katy Fire Department.
Heavy equipment was used to knock down walls of the building to give firefighters access to the source of the fire. Firefighters used aerial water streams to keep the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.
Some three dozen K-T Bolt employees were evacuated from the company’s adjacent buildings, including the manufacturing facility.
At one point, firefighters asked public works officials if they could release more water into the system to increase pressure, but heavy demands due to the heat and drought conditions kept pressures below normal and limited the water available to fight the blaze.
Late last week, the city asked residents to begin voluntary conservation measures, including limiting lawn watering, after seeing a 50 percent increase in water demand.
The city is placing notices in this month’s water bills asking residents to limit their water use, including watering their lawns only before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.
In the notice, the city said it has been pumping around 4.8 million gallons of water per day since the current period of dry weather began.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
