January 31, 2017 - The Tenaha Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to a house and grass fire off FM 947 on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 2:18pm.
City of Tenaha employees noticed the smoke emanating from a former sawmill worker lodging located on Old Sawmill Road and upon discovering it was on fire, contacted the fire department. The structure had almost completely burned when the firemen arrived. The property where the structure was located was once part of the local sawmill and several houses on the property were formerly used as lodging for sawmill employees; however, no one has lived in the buildings for some time and no utilities were running to the structure.
Much of the area of the building was scorched earth combined with large quantities of garbage as people in the area have apparently been using the land for a dumping ground. A large pile of utility cable was on the ground at the site of the house and appeared to have been burned during the fire.
Firemen contained the remaining fire and extinguished what remained of the building to prevent spread to nearby woods.
Jake Metcalf, Constable Precinct 4, was on scene with the firemen. According to the Tenaha Volunteer Fire Department, the cause of the fire is unknown at this time and remains under investigation.
