Neighbors recount frightening ordeal
The smell of smoke, the sight of flames and the wail of sirens interrupted a quiet night in a Central El Paso neighborhood.
Johnny Hampton was falling asleep when something caught his eye.
"We saw the reflection of this big light on the side of the house where the windows are, looked over and the blaze was going up man," he said.
His first reaction? Get his family out of the house.
"Our grandson's upstairs and stuff, ya know...they live here temporarily now. We were getting everybody out of the house. It was pretty nasty."
Moments later, the fire department showed up to this two-story house near Golden Hill Terrace and Arizona...right next door to Hampton.
As he watched firefighters put on their gear, all he could do was sit and wait...and hope his house wouldn't go up next.
"The houses are really close together. If wind blow this way with something that throw flames that high, catch my house on fire."
This house fire posed a challenge for firefighters.
"It sits high above ground-level, about two stories from the rear of the structure and one story above ground level from the front of the structure but we were able to get landlines in there and extinguish the fire," said Batallion Chief Ramon Valencia.
Firefighters quickly doused the flames, much to Hampton's relief.
"I hope I never see anything like it again man, really."
Investigators are still trying to determine a cause in this fire.
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