UPDATE: Heat source near combustibles causes deadly mobile home fire
UPDATE: An El Paso Fire Department’s spokesperson said a heat source near combustibles may have been the cause of the deadly fire.
Additionally, a contributing factor was late detection as the home did not have smoke alarms, the spokesperson said.
ORIGINAL: EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The victims of the mobile home fire in the Lower Valley that happened in the early hours of Saturday morning, April 20, were two sisters in their 70s who had spent the majority of their lives living together, the family told KTSM.
1 person dead in mobile home fire in Lower Valley; second fatal fire of week
Maria Montes and Irene Roman had been orphaned since they were eight and 10 years old when their mother died. The sisters had been inseparable until last week’s fire that took the life of Roman.
The fire happened along the 7260 block of Alameda Avenue, where fire crews responded to a Condition 1 fire at a mobile home where the Montes family said Montes and Roman had been living since the early 2000s.
“Since then (mom’s death) we’ve been together. Our childhood, youth and until now that we were older. We were always together, for better or for worse, always together. And that’s what hurt me the most,” said Montes, who survived the flames and was transported to a burn center in Lubbock after the fire.
Montes suffered severe burns and damage to her lungs from breathing in the smoke of the fire. She lost her home, car and most of her belongings, but the greatest loss was her sister.
The Montes family said Roman didn’t have any children, but that she helped Montes raise her daughters and grandchildren like her own.
“She was always taking care of us (Roman), she was always the one making us food. She was the one that I spent most of the time with because my mom worked,” said Lesly Chavez, one of Montes’ granddaughters. “She was always very nurturing, very caring. I considered her a grandma, even though she’s just my great aunt. I consider her a lot more than that.”
One of Montes’ granddaughters, Suzette Perea, had a surprise Cancun trip planned for Montes and Roman in 2 weeks.
The Montes family said they won’t recover from this because they cannot get Roman back, but they are trying their best to support Montes who they say has not been able to rest and is most devastated from the fire.
The Montes family have created a GoFundMe page where El Pasoans can help alleviate the family from medical and other expenses.
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