SAN ANTONIO – A fire destroyed two garage apartments and a travel trailer in the backyard of a Southwest Side home early Monday morning.
A call for the fire came out around 1:15 a.m. in the 2800 block of Longmeadow Drive, but crews said flames broke out in the part of the property that faces West Hutchins Place.
Flames spread from the garage apartments to the RV and to a nearby house before fire crews were able to extinguish it, fire officials said.
Officials said next-door neighbors were rushed out of their home, but made it out safely.
Juan Madrigal lived in the trailer. He awoke to a fellow renter's yelling.
"His exact words (were), 'I just saw the flame come out,' and that's it," Madrigal said. "Anybody who sees this little fire's gonna try to turn it off. The way he looked, he was just standing right there in a daze staring at it."
A neighbor said there had been several code complaints against the owner of the property. A spokesperson with the city only found one complaint from January 2013 for multi-family living in an area zoned single residential. No violation was found.
As for the exact rental set-up, Madrigal said considering where he has been, it was a great place to live, and the owner made it affordable.
"I've been homeless and everything. He tries to help me. He helps people to try to get them off the streets, get them back on their feet," he said. "Pretty much I'm back at square one -- homeless."
Arson investigators were called to the scene, but a cause was unknown.