• Tara Bozick •
• Originally published May 24, 2008 at 11:43 p.m., updated May 24, 2008 at 11:43 p.m.

A 59-year-old Victoria woman sat sobbing among supportive friends and family as she watched firefighters gain control of the blaze that destroyed her home.

Victoria firefighters responded to a report of a single-wide mobile home on fire in the 2000 block of Kern Drive, off South Laurent Street, at 10:46 a.m. Saturday, Battalion Chief Roger Hempel said. The first engine crew saw fire coming out of the home and they went into the home through the front door.

The crew saw Mary Saenz outside her home, but double-checked to make sure no one else was left inside, Hempel said. She lived alone.

Mary Saenz was sleeping in her bedroom when she felt heat and heard crackling. Her bedroom was right next to where the fire started in the living room and Saenz escaped under the flames out the front door.

“She barely made it out,” son-in-law Shon Ozuna, a fire chief with Glen Flora Volunteer Fire Department in Wharton County, said.

Firefighters determined it to be electrical, starting inside a wall, Hempel said. Crews had the fire under control within 10 minutes.

No one was injured.

The living room suffered heavy fire damage and the rest of the home suffered severe smoke damage, Hempel said. Once white walls turned dark gray.

AEP responded to the scene and the Red Cross was called to assist the resident.

“She had the angels, that’s for sure,” future son-in-law Pino Flores said.

Ozuna was impressed the Victoria Fire Department could stop the fire, as he usually sees mobile homes burn up quickly.

Family tried to salvage what little they could later in the afternoon.

“She lost everything,” daughter Sonia Saenz, 41, said. “She lost all her personal belongings, all her clothing.”

For people who would like to donate clothing, she said her mother wears an extra-large T-shirt and wears size 12-14 in ladies’ clothing. Wal-Mart helped to replace her medications. Flores’ employer, Palm Harbor Homes, will help provide her with a manufactured home. But she needs furnishings and money, most of all, as she had no insurance, Sonia Saenz said.

“She’s not doing too good,” she said late Saturday afternoon.

Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

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