Family escapes house fire
Lew K. Cohn/The Highlander
Horseshoe Bay firefighters battle a fire at 628 Fir Lane in Cottonwood Shores early Monday morning, Oct. 17.
By Lew K. Cohn
Managing Editor
The Highlander
A Cottonwood Shores family is thankful they safely made it out of their home early Monday morning when it caught fire.
The home at 628 Fir Lane appears it will be a total loss, but things could have been much worse.
Julia Ruiz said her family was just waking up when “my daughter was telling me there was smoke in the house.”
“I ran into the hallway and realized I saw smoke coming out of the whole hallway, so I told the kids to get out,” she said. “That was the first thing, let's get them out. I went into the laundry room because I could see where the smoke was coming from and I moved the curtain back a little bit and saw nothing but smoke, so I ran out of there too.”
Ruiz and her family were able to all get out of the home without suffering any injury.
A neighbor, Martin Martinez, was driving past the house when he saw smoke coming from the structure. He went to the yard and started trying to battle the blaze with his garden water hose.
“I went over and unhooked the propane tank and threw the connectors to the side and I sprayed down the grass around the house to try to stop it from spreading,” he said. “When the firefighters got here, they told me I wouldn't be able to really do anything more, so I got out of their way.”
Cottonwood Shores volunteer firefighters and the Cottonwood Shores police initially responded to the blaze and quickly called for mutual aid from Horseshoe Bay, Marble Falls Fire and Rescue and Marble Falls Area Emergency Medical Services.
While Ruiz indicated the fire appeared to start in the family's laundry room, Marble Falls Fire Chief Russell Sander said the cause was still under investigation.
Ruiz and her family will be staying with friends and family across the street from the home she has lived in for the past three years. There was no insurance on the building.
