SAN ANTONIO – Fear and chaos swept through the Pearl Park Apartments on the Northwest Side as a fast-moving fire tore through a building. As a result, at least 19 people are now without a home.
The fire broke out just after 3 p.m. Wednesday near Northwest Loop 410 and East Rolling Ridge Drive, igniting on the second floor before quickly spreading to surrounding units.
Eight apartments were damaged in total — four sustaining heavy fire and smoke damage, including a burned-through roof, and four others suffering water and smoke damage.
With little time to react, residents scrambled to grab what they could before running out of the burning building.
“My sister calls me and says, ‘Your building is on fire, your building is on fire!’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” said resident Valeria Villanueva.
For many, that left no time to save much of anything.
“I was like, ‘Let me get my phone and my dog and get out,’” said another resident.
A resident who lives directly across from the unit that caught fire said he watched the flames consume the entire breezeway of the apartment building.
“I kept smelling something and then there, flames were billowing into my door and then I saw a bunch of black smoke,” Michael Sarate said.
As the reality of the loss set in, Sarate described what many displaced residents now face.
“I don’t have nothing right now, so,” he said. “It’s looking like a lot of our stuff is going to be destroyed. That busted window up there is my son’s room. We don’t know if anything can be saved.”
Firefighters battled more than just the flames; they also worked through triple-digit temperatures. Due to the dangerous heat index, the response was elevated, bringing in additional San Antonio Fire Department crews as a precaution.
“Two of them had extremely significant damage. The roof did burned through,” Joseph Arrington with the San Antonio Fire Department said. “The other two on the back side, they did have some fire damage, but not nearly as bad. We don’t know what the extent of the damage is. Most likely it will be considered a loss because the roof is burned through.”
No one was injured in the fire, and all residents and first responders made it out safely.
Apartment management is working with displaced residents to either relocate them to other available units on the property or to a sister location in the area.
Despite the trauma of the day, residents found at least one moment of gratitude amid the devastation.
“At least I’m OK and everyone else is OK,” a resident said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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