Three-year-old Starts Fire In Apartment, Leaves Dozens Without Homes

Updated: Oct 6, 2008 11:08 PM CDT



TAFT - Many people are left homeless after a three-year-old boy started a fire in a Taft apartment while he was playing with a lighter on a sofa.

The fire gutted the Colony Apartments in Taft, and now the people who lived there are trying to figure out where to stay. At least four families are staying at a nearby hotel.

"I was in church and after church, they called us and we went over here, and went as fast as we could," Oscar Maldonado, an apartment resident, said.

Many of the apartment's residents spent time looking at the damage and sifting through what was left of their belongings Monday.

"[There's] no power and nobody can live there anymore," Maldonado said.

In one apartment, the fire completely gutted a restroom and the rest of the apartment had immense water damage.

"I don't care about the material stuff. I just worry about the people that were affected," Maldonado added.

Many of the people who lived in the apartments also had pets, who are in need of a home.

"I've heard that there are some Chihuahuas wondering around, and I'm going to look," Julie Gatheral, with Last Chance Rescue in Ingleside, said.

Gatheral has rescued several dogs and has claimed that some people abandoned their pets after the fire.

"I talked to them and I said I'll take them for now and see if I can find homes for them," she said.

Online Reporter: Thomas Piland

KRISTV.COM, Thomas Piland