Houston firefighters respond to church blaze, 'no injuries reported'

A decommissioned Houston church caught fire early on Jan. 31, but firefighters arrived quickly and got a handle on the fire before it wiped out the whole building.

Smoke was reported rising from the former Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart around 7 a.m. 

"@HoustonFire is on scene at 1900 San Jacinto performing an offensive attack after receiving reports of a church on fire,” the Houston Fire Department tweeted. “Call type has been upgraded to a 2-11. No FF or civilian injuries have been reported.” 

The blaze, which was contained to the second floor of the building, was snuffed out soon thereafter and the fire department reported no civilian injuries on Twitter after the fire was extinguished and the building was checked.

The former Catholic church was closed to the public and much of it had been boarded up, but television news reports indicated that homeless people might have occasionally been using it for shelter as old mattresses were seen at the site.

The church moved to a new location in 2008, and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston said it’s unlikely that anything of value was destroyed by the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to ABC13 news.