Relatives Displaced by Apartment Fire

HOUSTON - A two-alarm apartment building fire destroyed 16 units and displaced several members of an extended family in north central Harris County.

The fire started after 4 a.m. Thursday at the La Quinta Garden Apartments in the 4500 block of Aldine Mail Road. When firefighters arrived, they found flames shooting through the roof and windows of one of the buildings.

Fire consumed the entire building and witnesses said it spread very quickly. Several members of an extended family who lived in different units of the apartment complex reported damage to their homes.

Manuel Valdez lives in an apartment building next to the one that burned.

"I have family here," said Valdez as he pointed from one end of the burning building to the other.

"One lives down in the corner. She lost everything. My niece is over here. She lost everything. My brother-in-law lost most of his stuff from water damage."

"It hurts. It hurts to lose everything two times. Not one time -- two times," said Mary Ramirez as she watched her apartment being destroyed by the fire.

The single mother of four children says they lost all their belongings in an arson fire at the last apartment complex they lived in.

"We just got back on our feet and started up from June of last year. For this to happen all over again, it hurts. It's hard."

With 16 units destroyed, it appeared the complex did not have enough vacant apartments to offer to the affected residents.

"She said I'd have to wait," said Ramirez regarding what she was told by an apartment manager. "He said there are no any apartments available right now."

By 7 a.m. Thursday, white smoke was seen wafting from the burned building and firefighters were making sure that no flare-ups caused more damage.

One resident said that the fire started in a furniture storage area on the north end of the building. A laundry room facility was located in the same section of the building.

The fire disrupted morning traffic to three Aldine Independent School District schools that are across the street from the apartment complex. School district officials decided to delay the opening bells at MacArthur High School, MacArthur 9th Grade Center and Hambrick Middle School until 10 a.m.

Westfield Fire Department District Chief Todd Wotring said the fire was first reported at 3:55am Thursday and that it started in the north end of the building where residents say there is a laundry and storage room. He added that the exact cause is still unknown.

Wotring says ten fire departments worked together to put out the fire, but it spread quickly because of a common attic. Firefighters could not get the fire under control and the whole building was practically destroyed. All residents were able to get out of building safely, but most of them lost all of their belongings.