KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Iris Limon was cooking in her kitchen when she started feeling the heat from the flames of her neighbor's house, which was on fire.
According to the Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department, firefighters received the call around 1 p.m. Thursday about a house fire in the 5600 block of East 16th Terrace.
Many neighbors said they didn't see what happened because they were at work, but Limon said she saw it all.
“When I looked in the windows, I just saw red,” Limon said.
She was at home with her 1-year-old daughter and her two dogs.
“When I went outside, I felt very sad because I thought we were going to lose everything inside,” said Limon, who lives with her husband and two kids.
Her neighbor, Eleazar Rodriguez, also felt the impact.
“That close, you get nervous, you get scared,” Rodriguez said. “You’re afraid that the wind is going to change direction and something is going to happen to your house, too.”
KCFD said the fire spread to the house to the east and the one to the west due to high winds.
Rodriguez has lived in the neighborhood for almost three decades and has never seen anything like this.
“That’s what it is, a disaster,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not a house anymore — it’s history.”
History Bobby Dady knows all too well.
“We have a lot of memories in here,” Dady said.
His dad owns the property that caught fire.
“I don't want to speak too much on the situation just because I don't know, but as far as we've been told, they could be looking at it as arson,” Dady said.
KCFD requested the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department's Bomb and Arson Unit to take over the investigation "due to witness statements and the suspicious nature" of the fire.
KCFD reported no injuries in the blaze.
According to Dady, the house was vacant but filled with memories of his grandfather.
“Everything we remember about him was in this house. It hurts a little bit,” Dady said.
Neighbors are also learning to cope with their feelings as their homes are now unlivable.
“We’re trying to move on right now,” Limon said.
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