Losing everything: Fire claims homes, possessions of Niederwald family

by WES FERGUSON

Raymond Vallejo Sr. was hauling loads of ashes from his home on Sunday afternoon when he climbed down from his compact tractor and surveyed the evidence of the fire that had ravaged his property in Niederwald only two days earlier.

To his left, the motor home was a skeleton of charred metal. Ahead, the two-car garage was nothing but a concrete foundation and a small section of tile where the two chihuahuas were killed in the fire. To his right, his nephews and neighbor kids – the “free labor,” he said – were helping to demolish the home where Vallejo and his wife, Virginia, had lived for the past 13 years.

“We’re going to knock down the whole structure,” he said. “It’s pretty well smoked.”

Vallejo, 63, said he and his wife were away from home late Friday afternoon when his grandkids saw smoke coming from the motor home. The flames jumped to the garage, then to the house.

“It went pretty quick,” he said.

Shortly before 6 p.m., the Kyle Fire Department was dispatched to the home, in the 300 block of Longhorn Loop, where firefighters found the two homes fully engulfed in flames, according to the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, which also responded to the blaze.

The fires were extinguished after a little more than an hour, but firefighters remained for several hours to clean up and monitor the scene.

“They were out here till almost midnight,” Vallejo said, offering his thanks.

The fire also torched a Ford Mustang and Chevy Suburban that had been in the garage. No one was injured, and the couple are staying at a relative’s home two houses down. Vallejo said his wife is distraught over the loss of her two chihuahuas.

“You can’t imagine,” he said.

There was no insurance. Vallejo, a septic tank installer, said he’s not sure how long it will take to rebuild. At his age, he said, work is slow and there’s not much income.

“We’ll just do it one step at a time,” he said. “We’ll have a real house one of these days.”