The scream of sirens and the smell of smoke filled the air when firefighters arrived to find a garage ablaze early Wednesday morning.
SAN ANTONIO — Daisy says for decades Bikini Drive has been a peaceful place where neighbors look out for one another.
She said in East Terrell Hills, where the houses date back six decades, many of the residents have been around nearly that long.
But at 3 a.m. Wednesday the scream of sirens and the smell of smoke filled the air when firefighters arrived to find a garage ablaze and the flames spreading across the entire attic of a home.
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Daisy said it was a scary situation many had been dreading, after the elderly homeowner was recently moved into a memory care facility.
“Since the elderly lady moved out, it’s been an in-and-out situation with strange people going in and out of the house,” Daisy said.
Daisy mentioned hearing popping noises and someone screaming and when she looked outside, she saw the entire garage engulfed in flames.
“There was a man out in the front yard trying to water it with a hose, so I immediately ran and called 911,” Daisy said.
Kimberly Bland said the homeowner is her cousin, and the fire is just the latest hardship for a woman who has faced many adversities, including moving into a controlled assisted living facility recently.
Bland said the family has been concerned about the woman, who is in her 80s, for years, especially after she allowed a much younger man to move in.
“He has taken advantage of her,” Bland said, adding “She has told me that he hit her and that’s not the worst that he’s done to her. That’s her words.”
Bland said the damage to the home is so bad, arson investigators told her they may not be able to establish a cause for the fire, but she finds it extremely suspicious that the fire came just hours after the owner’s representative secured an eviction judgement against the man and several other transients he allegedly allowed into the home.
Bland said the family worked hard to get the woman into a safe situation, only to find that her major financial resource has been destroyed.
“Her sons had hoped the sale of this house would continue to pay for her care, her long term care. Well, now that the house is destroyed, she’s probably going to lose her residence with the memory care assisted living that she’s at,” Bland said.
Bland said fire investigators told her that while the fire seems suspicious, the damage level might make finding a cause difficult.
“He told me the house is a total loss and it looks like arson, but they can’t prove it because there’s so much damage,” Bland said.
Fire officials said the investigation continues. The city has several days to make a determination about whether an emergency demolition order will be pursued.