SAN ANTONIO – A tight-knit family was torn apart by tragedy Friday afternoon. A loved one was killed in a house fire on Green Street on the city’s South Side.
Family members and friends rushed toward the home on Green Street after they learned the victim had died in the fire.
“He was there at the house by himself and the fire started,” said Minnie Hernandez, the victim’s sister.
Hernandez said her 69-year-old brother, Adolfo Perez, was the person who died. He lived behind his older brother’s house in a separate home.
“My brother that lives in front, his name is Juan. He didn't know what was going on. There were some passers-by that knocked on his door and told him that the back house was engulfed in flames,” Hernandez said.
The passer-by who alerted Juan was neighbor Pablo Olivares.
“The house, in a matter of seconds, went up in flames. So I went back, knocked on the door again and finally the gentleman came out,” Olivares said. “And I said, ‘There's a fire.’ And he said, ‘Where?’ And I said, ‘In the back house.’ He said, ‘My brother's in there.’ By the time we all went back there, it was up in flames. We really couldn't do anything,” Olivares said.
“He (Juan) ran over there to his house, but it was too late because my brother couldn’t come out. His illness and he couldn’t walk far,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez, her seven other siblings and many other family members are leaning on each other in this difficult time.
"We’re all together. We’re a close family,” Hernandez said.
A preliminary investigation showed the fire may have been caused by faulty wiring.