Some Residents ‘Lost Everything’ In Apartment Fire

by Stephanie Valle

EL PASO — Fire investigators say a child playing with matches started the massive blaze that cut through ten apartment units Sunday night.

More than a 130 firefighters battled the blaze at the Linda Vista Apartments in the 1500 block of Magruder. It took them more than four hours to extinguish the blaze.

Officials said a six-year-old boy playing with matches and a lighter lit his mother’s mattress on fire. Investigators said the blaze started in a bottom floor apartment and then traveled up the walls to the top floor and engulfed the roof.

Residents from 24 apartment units had to be evacuated via Sun Metro buses to a shelter at Ross Middle School.

This morning, the fire department allowed many of those residents to go back into their apartments to retrieve any items that might be salvaged. For many of those that went back, it was not much.

What stung the most of the fire victims is that many of the things they lost are irreplaceable. “I was the one that kept a lot of the family heirlooms and the photos from five generations back,” said Sergeant. Christopher Pathe.

Specialist Charles Lepak said he lost letters from his wife, who is stationed in California. He also lost memorabilia from a fellow soldier that was killed in Iraq. “I wish I had grabbed his stuff,” he said.

Officials say the fire has been ruled accidental. Since the boy is under 10 years of age, he will not face any charges, they said.

Damages to the apartment complex are estimated at over one million dollars.