Firefighters are working to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed the home of a single mother of 6, but meanwhile the family needs help from the community to rebuilt their lives.
Ash is all that is left of the La Joya home.
“When I came back,” said Felipa Garcia. “There was nothing."
Garcia said she left to a funeral only to get a call from her son 45 minutes later saying the house was leveled by a fire.
“There's nothing…my kids clothes and shoes and everything—gone," she said.
Garcia said her oldest son was asleep when the blaze started but luckily neighbors woke him up.
"He told me when they woke him, he saw the roof on fire,” said Garcia.
One of Garcia's sons was on a La Joya school district's bus on his way to a field trip to UTPA and saw his home on fire.
He reached out to his family and found out they were all safe but later found out the fire destroyed the home.
Garcia and her family are homeless.
"They have nothing,” said Ronny Cabrera, the district’s director of college and career center. “If you see…if you looked at what happened. They lost everything they had as simple as that."
In the meantime, Garcia said she will ask a friend if her family can stay with her, but will need a more permanent living situation.
“I'll need help,” said Garcia. “I don't even know how my kids are going to go to school. We don't have any clothes or anything."
La Joya ISD said most of the children go to school in the La Joya district, and they will do anything they can to help.
"We are trying to see what is it that we're going to do to get some fundraising going, so that we can provide at least for the first few days and then see what we're going to do," said Cabrera.
But they hope the community can also reach out and help the family.
You can help the family by donating to the La Joya Area Federal Credit Union either in La Joya, Palmview or Weslaco.
The account is under the name of Felipa Garcia.
La Joya ISD
Parental Involvement
| Age | Sex | Shirt Size | Pant Size | Shoe Size |
| | | | | |
| 19 | M | Medium | 29 x 30 | 10 |
| 18 | M | Medium | 29 x 30 | 9 ½ |
| 13 | F | Small | 4 | 5 ½ |
| 10 | M | Youth Med | 9 | 12 |
| 7 | F | Youth Med | 6 | 10 |
| 5 | F | Youth Small | 5 | 4 |
| 41 | F | Medium | 12 | 7 |
| | | | | |
An account has been set up at the La Joya Area Federal Credit Union under the name of Felipa Garcia. A deposit may be made at any of the three (3) branches in Hidalgo County (La Joya, Palmview & Weslaco).
For more information, please contact Eutimio Garcia, Parental Involvement Strategist, (956) 821-7887, or Belinda Garcia, Public Information/Marketing Officer, (956) 458-8624.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT