Families receive donations from HFD after losing everything in Spring Branch apartment fire

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Two families who lost everything in an apartment fire last week in the Spring Branch area will still get to celebrate Christmas.

Members with the Houston Fire Department collected gifts for the families, who received the donations on Monday, just in time for the holiday.

The fire happened at the La Serena at Spring Branch Apartments on Wirt Road and Long Point last Tuesday at about 10:47 p.m.

Video from the scene showed large flames coming out of the roof of the building. The building was visibly charred with holes in the siding after the flames were extinguished.

No firefighters were injured, but three children were taken to the hospital.

We're told that one family of five with three young children has since moved in with relatives.

The other family, a mother and her three daughters, are now living in a hotel.

Last Wednesday, ABC13 spoke with the mother of the three children who were sent to the hospital. She said her children, a 1-year-old, 8-year-old, and 10-year-old, had to escape from the third-floor balcony as the fire broke out at their apartment.

"They were just traumatized," she said.

All three kids were checked out and are doing OK. She says her 8-year-old son suffered a mild concussion.

"Things could have been worse," she said.

She also believes this could have been prevented.

The mother, who does not want to show her face for fear of retaliation from apartment management, said that since they moved into the La Serena at Spring Branch Apartments in September, there have been electrical issues in the apartment, issues she says have gotten progressively worse.

"It escalated. My husband was putting a plug into the wall, and the lights shut off, and he kept wiggling it, and the lights were just flickering, and then here we are now," she explained.

She shared a video with ABC13 that she filmed showing the problem. The video shows the lights flickering throughout the apartment as her husband plugged a cord into the electrical outlet.

She also showed us emails and a written notice she sent to management about the electrical problem and said that last Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the fire, she was again asking management for a fix.

"I said, 'I have electrical problems,' and they (apartment management) said, 'We are going to get to it. We are going to get to it,' and I've just been getting attitude and inconsistent communication," she explained.

HFD arson investigators ruled the cause of the fire as accidental, due to an unspecified electrical malfunction. It is unclear if that malfunction is the same issue this woman raised concern about.

It's estimated that the fire caused $90,000 in damage.

Firefighters from 14 stations, Heavy Rescue 11 and the Village Fire Department all responded to the incident.

ABC13 worked to get more information from complex management, but we were asked to leave, and they would not provide any contact information for the higher-ups.

"I just want them to own up to their negligence," she explained.

This family is now looking for a place to stay and starting over.

"We have duties to our children to provide for them, and now it's like starting from ground zero because we couldn't salvage anything," she said.

Officials said six apartments at the complex were damaged in the fire.