BULLARD — The Bullard and Lake Palestine East volunteer fire departments were dispatched to one call and responded to two before making it back on Thursday.

At 11:40 a.m., both stations were dispatched to a mobile home fire on Woodhue Street in the Lakewood Subdivision on F.M. 346 in Cherokee County.

The fire was in Lake Palestine East's fire district, and Earle's Chapel Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the call.

Brandon Porter, Bullard firefighter, said crews contained the blaze, in the living and dining room areas. He said with some restoring, the home could become livable again.

“We confined it to the original area in the house,” said Bullard firefighter Justin Walker. “There was a lot of smoke and heat damage, but we were able to confine it to the area. No one was home and no one was injured.”

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but Porter said neighbors saw someone loading boxes from the home onto a trailer, and a neighbor reported the blaze started shortly afterwards.

Walker said after the fire was under control, the Bullard crews left the fire to Lake Palestine East's department to finish up. As they were leaving, they came upon a severe accident on F.M. 346 in front of the Shadybrook subdivision shortly after 1 p.m.

Trooper Cody Sheperd, with the Cherokee County Department of Public Safety, said Valerie Reese, 26, of Palestine was turning right onto F.M. 346 from the housing addition, but she turned too wide and ended up in the left-hand lane of the roadway.

Reese's red Mercury Cougar hit head-on with an oncoming Frito Lay truck driven by Jessica Baker, 31, of Athens.

Both women were taken by ambulance to East Texas Medical Center — Tyler, where they were both listed in stable condition late Thursday afternoon.

“We arrived when it first occurred, got the two patients out and got them loaded in the ambulance,” Porter said. “Then we got on back to our district.”

Lake Palestine East responded to the scene after the house fire was fully extinguished.

Sheperd said both women were coherent and talking at the scene.

“They are both in very good shape, considering,” he said.