{"id":277542,"date":"2026-05-03T22:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/277542\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:19:09","slug":"hfd-third-ward-fire-possibly-caused-by-squatters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/277542\/","title":{"rendered":"HFD: Third Ward fire possibly caused by squatters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; Firefighters battled a suspicious blaze at a 3rd Ward apartment complex under construction early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>   Third Ward construction fire <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The Houston Fire Department responded to the scene at about 6 a.m. Sunday on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/McGowen+St+%26+Napoleon+St,+Houston,+TX+77004\/@29.7329538,-95.3518559,17z\/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x8640befe811752c3:0x9b24e528fc979bc4!8m2!3d29.7329538!4d-95.349281!16s%2Fg%2F11h9_kvn9p?entry=ttu&amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">McGowen and Napoleon Streets<\/a>, where they found flames coming from a vacant unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Crews faced some challenges gaining access to the building due to the ongoing construction and perimeter obstacles, but were eventually able to tend to the fire.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/mcgowen.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">According to HFD investigators, it is believed that squatters had been staying inside the vacant apartment where the fire originated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">No injuries have been reported.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The cause of the fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Houston Fire Department.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/houston\/thirdward\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Third Ward<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/houston-fire-department\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Fire Department<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; Firefighters battled a suspicious blaze at a 3rd Ward apartment complex under construction early Sunday morning.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,7189,58,57,223,10944,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-277542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-fire-department","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-thirdward","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}