It was a brutal Friday for the city of Watauga — two fires, hours apart, one of them fatal, and a fire chief who ended up flying through a window before the night was over.
The small Tarrant County city found itself at the center of two separate fire emergencies on Friday, testing the limits of local emergency services and pulling in resources from across the region. By the time the sun rose Saturday morning, one person was dead, several others were hospitalized, and investigators were still piecing together what went wrong.
A Nursing Home Evacuated, Dozens Treated
It started early. Just after 6 a.m. Friday, an HVAC unit sparked inside a room at North Pointe Nursing and Rehab in Watauga, igniting a fire that, while ultimately contained to that one room, sent the entire facility into emergency mode. All 66 residents had to be evacuated — no small feat in a nursing home, where mobility is often limited and panic can spread faster than smoke.
First responders from nine cities converged on the scene, with as many as 30 ambulances and firefighting vehicles parked outside at peak response. About three dozen residents were treated on-site. Seven were transported to hospitals. It’s the kind of coordinated response that looks almost choreographed from the outside — but anyone who’s worked a mass-casualty scene knows it’s anything but.
Carissa Katekaru, a spokeswoman for North Richland Hills Public Safety, described the scene on the ground. “Trying to keep them warm, trying to keep them comfortable,” she said, adding that a rehab unit from North Hills was on hand to assist. She put the non-critical patient count at roughly 38 at the time of her update.
Of the seven who were hospitalized, six were released by the following day. One remained overnight. Two officers who responded to the scene were also treated for smoke inhalation — a reminder that even a “contained” fire carries real risk for the people walking into it.
Then Came the House Fire
Twelve hours later, Watauga wasn’t done. Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, a house fire broke out along Mackneal Trail near Jackie Terrace, drawing crews from the Watauga Fire Department along with units from North Richland Hills and Haltom City. What they found inside was grim.
One person was dead at the scene. A second was transported to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. The cause of the fire remains under investigation by both Watauga’s Fire Marshal’s Office and the Tarrant County Fire Marshal’s Office.
How dangerous was it in there? Dangerous enough that Watauga Fire Chief Benny Colbaugh — the man leading the response — was blown through a window by a backdraft after discovering the body of a deceased man inside the home. He had just made the grim find when the explosion of superheated gases hit. He survived. The details, documented by fire rescue outlets, are the kind that stick with you.
A City’s Long Day
Two fires. One city. One calendar day. That’s the kind of convergence that strains departments even under normal circumstances — and Watauga’s resources were already stretched thin by the time that second call came in Friday night.
Still, the mutual aid system held. Neighboring departments stepped up, as they’re designed to do. Investigations are ongoing, and authorities haven’t released the identity of the person killed in the house fire or the circumstances that may have contributed to either blaze.
For a city of roughly 25,000 people, Friday was the sort of day nobody plans for — and the sort that reveals, in sharp relief, exactly what emergency responders are willing to walk into. Or, in Chief Colbaugh’s case, be thrown out of.
