SAN ANTONIO — Leonard Navarro said he was at his New York City residence when his phone rang a few minutes before midnight last week. It was a frantic call from a relative in California, telling him that the family home in San Antonio was ablaze.
“It was a cousin saying, 'Call me back, emergency,'” Navarro said.
While the home was burning, he says, family and friends all over the country immediately sprang into action.
“The fact that we had friends and family from all across San Antonio contacting other people throughout the country within 20 minutes of a fire starting on Brandenburg Drive in San Antonio was astounding. Astounding!” Navarro said.
Navarro said his brother, Isaac, who happened to be awake in his upstairs bedroom, likely saved everyone when he smelled smoke, including their mother and grandmother.
“He is responsible for getting people out and acting really fast and putting them first. From my mother to my grandmother to the animals, he got everyone out very quickly, and so he deserves a lot of credit,” Navarro said.
Isaac was greeted by a wall of flame when he opened the door to the garage to investigate the smell. In mere moments, the entire first floor was ablaze.
Navarro said Isaac got their grandmother out a front door before running through the fire to rescue his mother from the back of the house. While they have been told the fire started in the garage, Navarro said it was Isaac’s second-floor bedroom that sustained the most significant damage.
“The saddest part is, out of everyone in the house, he truly lost everything he had," Navarro said. "My brother walked out of this house during this fire with the clothes on his back and that was it."
Navarro said the heat was intense.
“My brother, the fire singed his hair so badly that he cut his hair off and just started anew. That's how intense the heat was,” Navarro said.
In the aftermath, Navarro said the family is intensely grateful for the community support they have seen.
“The outpouring of love from people in San Antonio has been incredible," he said. "Not only from just the Go Fund Me financially, but while we've been clearing out rubble and trinkets and trying to save as much as we can, people just show up and they bring bottles of water. They bring food. It's amazing."
With regard to the fund, which grew to more than $30,000 in just a day, Navarro said, “People we haven't talked to in decades. It's been humbling. It's been really amazing to see people contribute anything they can, from small donations all the way up to thousands of dollars from friends from years ago. All San Antonians. All people who know our family.”
Navarro said the family wants others to learn from the hard lessons they are living, sharing this advice:
On Independence Day, Navarro said the gift of interdependence – of the kindness of strangers – has put gratitude front and center.
“I'm grateful for our family. I'm grateful for our friends. I'm grateful for San Antonio," he said. "I’m grateful for generations of people that we have known since the Navarros have been in San Antonio coming together to help us out and figure this out. You don't live your life relying on people but when a disaster happens, it's a place like San Antonio where people come out of the woodwork to help.”
The San Antonio Fire Department has a website dedicated to helping people prevent and survive house fires.