Karen Gleason
A Del Rio Fire Department investigator said he couldn’t determine what started a fire that gutted a house on the city’s north side on Dec. 5.
No one was injured in the blaze, which destroyed the home of Assistant County Attorney Ruben Niño at 123 Riata Drive, according to a report on the fire released Wednesday by the DRFD.
DRFD Lt. Donald Merkle, who served as the incident commander, reported firefighters were dispatched to the Niño residence at 5:02 a.m. Dec. 5.
“Upon arrival, we noticed visible flames coming through the roof of the structure and the garage fully engulfed. The entrance to the structure had flames spreading through the front door. A vehicle parked outside the garage also had flame extension,” Merkle wrote in his report on the incident.
Merkle said 14 firefighters and five fire department vehicles responded to the conflagration.
Merkle reported the Riata Drive home was approximately 75% engulfed in flame when firefighters arrived.
“All three engine companies were already on scene and fighting the fire. EMS was also on scene,” Merkle reported.
He said he notified the Del Rio branch of American Red Cross for the residents of the home and called DRFD Assistant Chief Pablo Padilla to investigate the cause of the fire.
Firefighters spent about two hours extinguishing the blaze.
The origin of the fire was determined to have been in the garage attached to the house, but the item first ignited, the heat source and the type of material ignited was “undetermined,” Merkle’s report notes.
In the area of the report citing “cause of ignition,” the fire investigator noted, “Cause undetermined after investigation.”
The 1,752-square-foot house and a 1979 Chevrolet El Camino were heavily damaged in the blaze. The DRFD report did not contain a dollar estimate of the loss.
County Attorney Ana Markowski Smith posted an appeal on her personal Facebook page on Dec. 10, asking Del Rioans to donate to a GoFundMe page initiated by attorney Natasha Torres to raise money for Niño and his son.
Smith said on her page that Niño and his son also lost all of their personal belongings in the fire.
Several attempts to reach Niño were unsuccessful.
