On Friday, Dec. 23, at about 7 a.m., Patricia Michel's home went up in flames.
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"She brought the dogs in because it was so cold and there was an enclosed patio area, and she had the dogs in there and they had made a mess that she was cleaning up," her sister Lena Martinez said. "This is literally how she described it. She said it was like a snake but a snake of fire. She said she literally turned around, and boom! And then she ran out."
Michel ran outside to get some water but quickly remembered they had turned it off because of the freeze.
"She said she looked at the car patio. It looked like two hands of fire engulfed her son's car, and I think that's when it hit the gas line," Martinez recalled.
Michel's son passed away in September. His car still had oxygen tanks in the back.
Although the cause of the fire has not been officially determined, Martinez said her sister was using butane to heat her home. The home did not have central heating and air.
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Surveillance video captured Michel's neighbor pull her out of the house and onto the street, but she went back inside to save her six dogs. That is when she sustained second and third-degree burns all over her body.
Martinez, who has been by her side in the hospital, said two of her dogs were found and are at an animal shelter. They are working to find the other four.
"When you love something and something like that happens, you go into instinct and sometimes you put your own personal safety to the side," Martinez said.
Michel has already received two surgeries this week and she's not sure if she will need any additional operations. She has not gotten word on when she will be released.
The home that caught fire had been in her family for more than six decades. Martinez said their family has so many memories on Norlinda Drive.
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"I have not even gone to look at the house, because I know it's going to be emotional and I know it's a material thing but it still - that house had so many memories in it," Martinez said. "All the grandbabies got bathed in the sink in the kitchen."
The home is a total loss. When Michel is released from the hospital, Martinez said she does not know where her sister will go.
"We have been talking about that and we are not really sure," Martinez said. "We are not really sure. It's a lot."
Her family has set up a GoFundMe to help with her medical expenses.
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