Residents uninjured in morning house fire

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A senior citizen and two pre-teen girls escaped unharmed from a home in Cotulla after it caught fire Friday morning, May 23, an incident to which local firefighters responded within minutes.
The La Salle Fire Rescue is being credited by the county sheriff’s office with having been able to extinguish the blaze before the home was destroyed, according to a report this week.
The sheriff’s office has confirmed that an emergency call from the home in the 100 block of Northeast Tampico Street indicated that a fire had started in the building. La Salle Investigator Homar Olivarez was among the first at the scene and said that the La Salle Fire Rescue successfully contained the blaze after connecting its trucks to a nearby hydrant.
Olivarez encountered the three home occupants and described them as an elderly woman with two young girls, noting that the woman had called 911 and taken the children out of the house within moments of detecting the fire near an electrical outlet.
Those reports have been corroborated by interviews taken by responding firefighters.

The concave lens of an emergency responder’s vehicle dashboard camera shows La Salle County firefighters extinguishing a residential blaze in Cotulla last week. An investigation will determine causes of the blaze that left the home heavily damaged.

“When I arrived, there were flames and smoke erupting from the structure and enveloping the roof,” the investigator said. “It has yet to be determined how this fire started, but the structure itself may have been saved.”
Olivarez also notified nearby residents and said he advised them to be prepared for an emergency evacuation if necessary.
“It was vital at that point to ensure the safety of the home occupants and to protect those living in close proximity,” the investigator said. “There was a serious risk of embers igniting nearby structures.”
Officers have also confirmed that a number of ammunition rounds were discharged in the home as a result of the fire.
A preliminary investigation has indicated that the home sustained severe smoke damage throughout.