The owners of the rental property located on the corner of Dallas Avenue and Mabry Street have some small firefighters to thank for the building not suffering any worse damage Sunday morning.

Driving to morning services at First Baptist Church, Selma Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug Horton is not sure which one of his daughters — Jamie or Kenzie — pointed out the smoke first. He just knows he didn’t see the smoke and fire at the Mabry Street house until his daughters asked, “what is all that smoke coming from that house, daddy?”

“We went back and saw there was dark smoke coming from the house so I called it in,” Horton said. Units from the department’s Engine 3, Engine 4 and Ladder 3 responded.

He said he and another fire fighter went inside to make sure there was no one inside, which there wasn’t.

“There wasn’t fire noticeable until we looked under the house and then looked in one of the rooms,” he said. Horton wasn’t sure if the room that suffered the worst of the fire damage was a bedroom.

He added most of the damage to the units was smoke and water damage and it was not yet known what caused the blaze.

Crews at the building refused to comment about the fire, any damage or efforts to get the units ready to reoccupy.

He did make it to church later though.

“I was a little late to Sunday School,” Horton said.