Video shows officers arriving just as Hurst home explodes
HURST, Texas - Dash camera video from the Hurst Police Department shows officers arriving at a home just as it explodes.
The house on the corner of West Redbud and Myrtle drives was hit by an SUV in early April. The driver, 40-year-old Alejandro Castro, claimed his brakes went out and he lost control of the vehicle.
The impact severed a gas line and about seven minutes later the house exploded.
The police video shows several officers pulling up to the scene. One starts walking towards the house and it suddenly bursts into flames.
“I just remember a big heat wave and something kind of pushing me from the side,” said Officer Travis Hiser. “There was shrapnel coming out of the house. The roof explodes, insulation was coming out. Things were coming out on fire.”
The officers ran to the back of the house and found a woman severely injured and burned in the rubble. They pulled her to safety and were also able to get her husband and adult son out.
The three members of the Bridges family are still recovering. Parkland Hospital says Dixie Bridges is in critical condition. Her husband, Charlie, is in good condition. Their son is now out of the hospital. One of the officers who helped rescue them was also treated for minor burns.
The couple's daughter, Sarah Shirley, visited them in the burn unit on Wednesday. She says her mother is finally breathing on her own and is showing major progress.
“When you look at the footage, you just can't even imagine that anybody survived that. And they all survived,” Shirley said. "It's humbling and kind of terrifying at the same time."
What you don't see on video, because police have not released it for privacy reasons, is Hiser and another officer going into the burning home to pull Dixie from the debris.
"I can't even wrap my mind around what they went through and what the police went through and how they went back in the house after my mother,” Shirley said. “That's amazing. That's huge. They wouldn't be here."
Castro was arrested for not having a license. He was also placed on an immigration hold and then transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.