CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nearly three weeks ago a fire broke out at a West Side home, sending a father and his five-year-old daughter to the hospital.
"I can't go to sleep because I think about the fire, " five-year-old Celeste Martinez said.
Rick Martinez was born and raised in a house on the West Side and now doesn't have a place to call home. He said singing has been a way to help his daughter cope with the traumatic fire they experienced.
"It was around 6 a.m., waking up to a fire by the mattress the outlet was spreading out electricity, so I had to get up I was in shock and I didn't know what to do, so I had to get water from the kitchen run to the mattress to try to put it out and it didn't do anything," Martinez said.
He added that two days before the fire he felt one of the outlets getting hot and told his mother who also lives with him that they had to get it checked out --- but it was too late.
He and his daughter Celeste got second-degree burns and were taken to the hospital,
"I didn't know there was a fire, I heard my dad said come out because there was a fire, he smelled the fire," Celeste said.
Martinez said that the fire he lived through was a scary moment.
"I think experiences are the ones that teach more than anything, going through it, talking about it is something else but going through it it's just scary, for people who haven't done it or gone through it you know, yeah it was a mind changer I feel different about life now," he said.
Martinez said the only thing he would've done differently is getting those outlets checked out sooner, The Red Cross has helped them out by renting out a room at Motel 6 but he said any help is appreciated.
They lost things like clothes, tablets, TVs-- mainly all material things but Martinez is glad they didn't lose the most important thing.
"Our life and our love, we did't lose our life and our love," he said.
Although he didn't know what to do at that very moment, he is glad he was able to save his family, the house is currently not livable but is slowly working on recovering from the nightmare.
If you would like to donate you can contact Rick at 361-336-7363.
