The cause of a fire that tore through a McKinney neighborhood remains under investigation Sunday.
According to the McKinney Fire Department, flames took out seven homes that were under construction and heavily damaged an occupied home around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Sasidhar Punna spent the afternoon like a lot of his neighbors in his McKinney subdivision talking about what he saw late Saturday and is still processing it.
“I even dreamt of fire last night,” Punna said. “It was brutal. Even my hand got burned while opening the patio door.”
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A Ring camera on his back patio captured his fence being consumed by flames before the camera melted from the heat. On the other side of the fence line, multiple homes under construction along Marigold Drive were burning.
Including the home Mary House and Carl Shurson were building together.
“That’s tough to swallow,” Shurson said. “Yeah, it makes me sad. I’m just devastated,” House added.
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Shurson shared video with NBC 5 showing the flames engulfing homes in the Bloomridge master-planned community.
Multiple McKinney Fire crews responded and battled triple-digit heat. Most of the homes were wood frames and aided by winds, burned quickly.
Punna says he turned on his sprinkler system to keep the fire from spreading beyond his back fence, however, he still lost several windows and sustained damage on his back patio.
He says he expects to not be able to live in his home on neighboring Horsetail Drive for at least a few months.
“I had my first kid, I bought this home for him and I wanted to have a nice feeling for him in this house,” Punna said. “And when I saw my home burning in flames, I completely burst into tears.”
McKinney Fire spent Sunday back out in the heat, trying to make sure nothing rekindled while the investigation continues.
Neighbors said they are aware of previous vandalism in some of the under-construction homes but no word yet if the fire was accidental or may have been deliberately set.
