It was exactly the kind of scenario Spur’s City Ordinance 610 was designed to prevent.
At six Monday morning, the alarm went out regarding a structure fire in the 500 block of Williams Street, in a row of older frame homes across from the Bethel Baptist Church. Spur and McAdoo Volunteer Fire Departments, along with the sheriff ’s office, EMS and the police department, arrived to a 1,120-square-foot house on fire, outbuildings ablaze and an adjacent residence threatened, and a motor home engulfed in flames.
The occupant of the motor home, who had been living in it without connection to utilities, had escaped through a window and had suffered smoke inhalation and some degree of burns, said Spur VFD Chief Wess Abbott. The man, Dimas Mosqueda, was transported by Dickens EMS to University Medical Center in Lubbock for medical treatment.
The dog was not so lucky.
House “fully involved.”
Abbott said that the main structure, which was “fully involved” when responders arrived, was already in an advanced state of disrepair. It was allowed to burn down, while firefighters concentrated on saving the next-door property, where fire had spread to the attic, and putting out the 16-by-30-foot outbuilding “full of combustibles” such as furniture, old books, lumber and roofing materials.
Jay Allen of the Dickens County Sheriff’s Office said he was not aware of any other occupants in any of the buildings. No further details on the fire are available the state fire marshal’s investivation, Abbott said.
Mosqueda, whose request for a zoning variance to allow temporary residence in an RV while working on a house was denied during last week’s city council meeting, had resided in the RV for some months but is not the property owner. Dickens County Appraisal District shows the parcel as belonging to Albert Fuentes. CAD records indicate a 2022 certified tax valuation of the house as $1,170, the outbuilding $100, and other property $10.
History of violations. Following the city council’s May 16 action, code compliance officer Barry Ferguson had delivered a violation letter to Fuentes noting the substandard structure. Ferguson also notified Mosqueda he wouldhavetomovethemotor home off the property and out of the city limits, as Spur allows living in an RV only within designated RV parks, or temporarily on a residental-zoned lot while undertaking construction of a permanent structure.
It’s not the first time responders have been called to the address, said Abbott. A fire was reported in the house on Christmas Eve 2022 after a burn barrel was found inside.
“Codes enforcement is the answer,” Abbott said, to situations that threaten not only property and neighbors’ property, but lives. Codes compliance “has a tough job” but is making a difference in the city, he said.
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