TULETA, Texas — Two people are dead following a house fire in Bee County, as officials continue to investigate what caused the fire.
The fire broke out at about 2 p.m. on the 8500 block of Huisache Lane in Tuleta, a town in Bee County.
Pettus Tuleta Volunteer Fire Department Chief Lester Kissee said they believe the fire started in the kitchen area.
He said that’s where they saw most of the fire coming from when they arrived on scene.
Kissee said the victims are so badly burned, they are unrecognizable.
The house is also extremely burned and there is still a burnt smell to it. A car parked on the side of the house also got partially burned, but a few things, like religious crosses are still standing on each side of the house.
Kissee said fires in the same area are not very common. Between this year and last year, only four fires broke out, and this fire was the worst one.
He added it was a team effort between a few fire departments, including the Beeville Fire Department.
“We really greatly appreciate the surrounding fire department that come and give mutual aid. We all work together in this county because we’re a very small fire department,” Kissee said.
Kissee said they also responded to a small fire at around 10 a.m. Thursday at the same site because of an ember from yesterday’s fire.
“Anytime you have a structure fire like that, there’s tin and boards and stuff that collapse. You cannot get everything saturated with water so there was a little bit of smoke, we removed a piece of tin and there was a couple of embers still growing underneath it,” he said.
He said the medical examiner is doing an autopsy and the Bee County Sheriff's Office and State Fire Marshall are investigating.
