Fire destroys Preston Hollow family's home

DALLAS - A northwest Dallas family was forced out of their home early Friday morning by a fire.

The fire started around 3:30 a.m. at a home on Irvin Simmons Drive in the Preston Hollow neighborhood.

An elderly couple and their adult son were home at the time. They got out of the house safely, but the elderly man needed some treatment at the scene for breathing difficulties.

It took firefighters about an hour to get the flames under control. They tried an interior attack, but eventually moved to a defensive attack because the fire was just too intense.

The woman who lives in the home is an artist. Firefighters were able to save some of her work.   

"I could tell that she was an artist. There was a lot of paintings in the house. We went through a few precautions to try and save them. We got them stacked in the backyard and again in the front yard," said Dallas Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Doug Stricklin.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.