Mom of 3 loses all but her faith in fire
A TV and painting that reads ‘Pray’ is all the family could recover from an apartment blaze last weekend
Some may call it luck, but Dominique Ramírez calls it favor and a blessing that she and her three young children weren’t home when a fire erupted at their apartment complex over last weekend.
Ramírez, 30, went to take care of her sister’s dog and her children were with their father Saturday. She returned Sunday afternoon to find her place completely burned and boarded up, and all of her family’s possessions gone.
“That’s when my world was turned upside down,” she said. “When I got there I was so confused, I was panicking, crying, of course and I was upset as to why I hadn’t received a phone call from the office since it happened Saturday at midnight.”
She questioned the officials at her apartment complex. Avana Eldridge told her they were bombarded trying to contact everyone and hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Ramirez demanded they remove the boards from her apartment so she could see the inside.
All that survived was a mounted television on the wall and a religious painting that reads “Pray.” She treated it as a sign. “It’s definitely God talking to me and telling me that I need to pray through all of this so that’s immediately what I did,” Ramírez said. “I’ve always been a believer and had faith, but I’ve been more involved with my church so I know this is more of a spiritual attack than anything. I’m just trying to hold onto my faith and not allow the devil to win.”
The fire started Saturday night at 10:28 p.m. in one unit and spread to adjacent ones at 1602 Enclave Parkway, according to OnScene TV. The Houston Fire Department extinguished the blaze by 11:20 p.m.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but “firefighters arrived on scene to find light haze around an apartment building with a report of a stove on fire,” an HFD spokesperson confirmed via email.
No injuries were reported, but the fire caused $300,000 in estimated damage, according to a fire department report.
Although Ramírez had a onebedroom unit, it represented much more to her. It was her first place on her own since splitting from her husband and bouncing around to different family members’ homes with her children.
“Living in that apartment, I was barely getting back on my feet,” she said. “I was just starting to make my apartment homey.”
Ramírez said she returned to work the next day as if nothing happened. She recently started a new position as a receptionist at a law firm and was reluctant to tell them. But her phone wouldn’t stop ringing between her renter’s insurance company, family and neighbors.
“They were shocked, too, that I was there, but I think I was using it to suppress everything that I was going through,” she said. “It was my little bit of normal.”
Ramírez and her kids are now staying with her older sister, Lorena Vela, who started a GoFundMe campaign to help them restart their lives.
“While the loss of all of their belongings is replaceable, they are without a place to live and all of those little day-to-day things we all take for granted (like a toothbrush, a change of clothes, or even a single toy for her 3-yearold twins!),” Vela’s post reads.
“Dom would never directly ask for help which is why her overbearing sisters decided to put this together as there has already been such an outpouring of people asking how they can help,” Vela said. “To put it plainly — they have the clothes they were wearing on Friday and that’s about it. So anything you can think of to make their lives a little more ‘normal’ would be so appreciated.”
The fund is close to achieving its goal of $15,000 with more than $12,000 in donations.
Overwhelmed by the generosity, Ramírez said she’s staying in contact with some of her neighbors who aren’t as fortunate and donating things she doesn’t want or need.
“It’s not just about me,” she said. “Thank God I have family. I just want to still be able to be a blessing to people despite what I’m going through. I know I’m covered.”