SAN ANTONIO – A fire that burned through one section of a Northeast Side apartment building Tuesday night took with it the homes and possessions of at least six families.
Sheila Meylor, though, wasn’t worried about material property at the time. Her main concern was about people.
“All I could think about was my daughter was dead,” she said, still fighting back tears.
Meylor revisited the burned out building near Loop 410 and Ira Lee Wednesday morning, surveying the damage.
The fire broke out shortly before 11 p.m. at the Maya Apartments, destroying or causing damage to at least six units.
San Antonio firefighters say it appeared to start in the bedroom of a second floor apartment.
A man suffered burns and was rushed to a hospital.
Firefighters also rescued a dog from one apartment.
Meylor, meanwhile, was trying frantically to contact her daughter for about 45 minutes.
All she could do was hope and pray for both her daughter and three-year-old granddaughter as she watched firefighters going from one burning apartment to another.
“They were actually at my daughter’s door,” Meylor said. “I came in to watch them break her door down. I didn’t know what they were going to tell me.”
Eventually, she found out that her loved ones were safe. They were not home at the time of the fire.
Everything they had inside their third-floor apartment was lost, though, Meylor said.
“It just looks like a disaster,” she said. “All I could think about is my grandbaby’s Barbie dresses and stuff that she’s been collecting so long.”
An SAFD spokesman said that firefighters were working with the apartment complex’s management and the American Red Cross to help the displaced families find a new place to stay.
Meylor said she is keeping her daughter and granddaughter close to her. She is taking them into her home.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.