Fire claims home in Redwood, no injuries reported

Firefighters continued fighting the fire as flames continued to flare hours after the start.
Daily Record photo by Dalton Sweat

San Marcos Fire Department was one of multiple to respond to the fire. While the home was a total loss, it appeared the fire was contained to one property.
Daily Record photo by Dalton Sweat

The home of Geronimo and Inez Rodriguez burned down on Cypress Street in Redwood near the Centro Esperanza Community Center on Tuesday afternoon.

There were no injuries reported to people, pets or firefighters during the incident, and the fire was contained to one property.

The first calls for help came at around 6:15 p.m. Geronimo and Inez were not at home when the fire started. A neighbor saw the smoke and tried to use a water hose to tame the flames while the fire department was on the way. He said that it eventually got too hot to continue. A family member attempted to run inside to salvage items, but he was turned back by the smoke.

The home that they have lived in since 2000 was a total loss. They did not have home insurance.

“Right now, they are staying with my daughter,” Sulema Arrecis, daughter of the Geronimo and Inez said.

The fire marshal deemed the fire an accident starting from a burn pit in the back yard.

York Creek Volunteer Fire Department thanked the other agencies that responded to assist with the fire including Guadalupe County Fire & Rescue, Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Dept., city of San Marcos FD, SM/HC EMS, Kingsbury VFD, Maxwell VFD-Caldwell County, South Hays Fire Dept, Hays County CERT and Bluebonnet Electric.

This isn’t the first time Arrecis has had to deal with a fire, albeit this one was more personal. She is the center administrator for Centro Esperanza, which sits in the Redwood neighborhood and is an extra-territorial jurisdiction for San Marcos but is on the northeastern tip of Guadalupe County. The center offers back-to-school immunizations, basic adult computer, ESL and GED programs, food fairs, a mobile pantry, a baby pantry, a summer youth program, utility assistance, among its programs. It suffered from a fire four years ago.

Now, Arrecis is back again cleaning up the ashes, this time of her parent’s home.