UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas – Two months after a fire tore through an apartment complex in Universal City, a sense of frustration has set in for some people, while others are getting used to a new start.
The fire, which broke out on the afternoon of Dec. 7, destroyed 11 units at the Falcon Ridge apartments.
Dozens of families were displaced, either due to the fire or damage from water or smoke.
Merechia Bingham had to move due to the smoke that seeped through her apartment and the damage the fire did to much of the rest of her building.
She spoke to KSAT 12 News from the new efficiency apartment she now occupies at another complex a few miles away.
“I really like it. It’s easier to keep clean,” she said, giggling while showing off her new home.
Still, Bingham said she has moments where she gets down, either thinking about or dreaming about that day in December.
She said a friend first called her attention to the smoke billowing from a second-floor unit in her building. Bingham then jumped into action, working to get her neighbors out of their homes safely.
“I did what God meant for me to do. I started knocking on doors,” she recalled. “When I couldn’t get upstairs, (my thought) was to pull that alarm. I didn’t think twice about it.”
She said miraculously, no one suffered any injuries in the fire.
Investigators spent weeks sifting through the burned building, looking for clues about how the fire started. However, they have reached a point now where they have declared the cause to be “undetermined.”
Fire Chief Todd Perna said that does not mean investigators are completely without answers.
“It means, OK, this is the area, but I have too many points of ignition here and I can’t rule anyone out definitively,” he said. “I used to think that it made me less of an investigator if I had to rule a fire undetermined, and it doesn’t anymore.”
Assistant Chief Justin Garcia, who actively worked on the investigation, said the lack of precise answers, though, can be frustrating.
“I would like to be able to point all the evidence to one source,” Garcia said. “We brought it to a point in the apartment nearest the kitchen. The rest of it is still an open investigation.”
Bingham said she would also like to have closure when it comes to how the fire started.
What has given everyone hope is the amount of support they saw in the immediate wake of the fire and the weeks that followed.
“We were there handling this incident from the beginning, and while we were still handling this incident, the community was already coming together,” Perna said.
Bingham agreed, saying that “so many people were reaching out to us, all the people that were displaced by that fire.”
From individuals to whole groups, people collected and donated clothing, food and money to help the fire victims.
The generosity has filled both Bingham’s heart and home with happiness.
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