No injuries in late-afternoon house fire Sunday afternoon

UPDATE: A fire at 1734 N. Mockingbird Lane rekindled Monday morning. Firefighters responded and are continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze. Also, a fire Sunday on Lark Court is under investigation as a possible arson, the department reports.

ORIGINAL STORY: A neighbor said he kicked down the back door of a north Abilene home Sunday evening when he saw the front of the house was on fire.

Bobby Webster has lived across the street from 1734 N. Mockingbird Lane for five years. Just before 4:30 p.m., flames started pouring out the front of the home.

“One of the kids came in and told me,” Webster said. “The whole front of the house was on fire.”

He knew the resident, a man he identified as “Virgil” was still inside.

“The people across the street were trying to put it out so I just made sure he wasn’t in the house,” Webster said. Wearing a t-shirt and lounge pants, he ran across Mockingbird, past the fire, and around to the back.

“As soon as I kicked in the back door, he was coming out of the kitchen and he ran went past me, came around and fell in front of the house,” Webster said. “He was choking like he couldn’t catch his breath.”

Battalion Chief Jim Moore said there had been an initial report of someone injured in the fire, but that later turned out not to be the case. A man Webster identified as Virgil was still in front of a neighboring home, waiting with police officers for an investigator to arrive.

Moore said four fire engines with 18 firefighters responded to the blaze which was one house down from N. 18th Street.

“They had a pretty quick knockdown, it seems like everything is done, we’re just holding tight until the investigator gets here,” he said. “We had multiple calls coming in, it was showing from the front when we got here. We saw the smoke from a good distance away.”

Result of the investigation are still pending.