Today is the fifth anniversary of the Southwest Inn fire in Houston.
Looking back over the blog, I didn’t write much about it at the time because I was running around a lot. I did touch on it a few years later.
The Houston Fire Department responded to a fire at a restaurant that was connected to the hotel. It blew up into a major conflagration, and while HFD was trying to put out the fire, the roof collapsed.
Four firefighters were killed instantly: Engineer Operator Robert Bebee, Firefighter Robert Garner, Captain Mathew Renaud, and Firefighter Anne Sullivan. HFD Captain William Dowling sustained serious injuries, and passed away in 2017.