by Elizabeth Ruiz and Marissa Wagner
A woman and her 1-year-old twin sons have been found dead in the rubble of their burned out home in Southwest Bexar County.
The blaze fanned by winds gusting to more than 50 miles per hour Monday afternoon also destroyed four neighboring structures in the 8,000 block of Old Pearsall Road.
"Five residential structures burned down. One 83-year-old female was injured and taken to a hospital," said Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse
.
The elderly woman's injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
Although the deadly fire is outside the city limits, several San Antonio Fire Department companies were called to help out as the flames quickly spread.
A temporary shelter was set up at a Southwest School District facility Monday night for the displaced families.
Jesse told 550 KTSA News that the American Red Cross was offering assistance.
"We will have employees with our community resources department visit with the families to see what assistance we can offer them in addition to the help they're getting from the American Red Cross," Jesse said.
Smoke could be seen for miles from another fire Monday afternoon at the Wood Hollow Apartments in the North Side.
"I was pulling into the parking lot and I saw smoke coming from one of the windows and you could see the flames and the smoke getting bigger," said Kaitlyn Krogmann.
Christan Bove with the San Antonio Fire Department says the fire started on a balcony and the investigation continues into what sparked the three-alarm blaze at the complex on Sahara Drive near Isom Road.
A second building was evacuated as a precautionary measure, but Bove says firefighters managed to contain the flames to the building where the fire started. All sixteen units in that facility were destroyed or heavily damaged by fire, smoke and water.
"The good news is that we didn't have any injuries," Bove told 550 KTSA News.
As residents stood in the parking lot, watching dozens of fire crews battle the stubborn blaze, Krogmann offered her car as a shelter for her neighbors' children.
"My upstairs neighbor, I've never even talked to her, but I saw her walking across and it's windy and cold and there was heavy smoke, so I asked her if she wanted to put her children in my car. There were other children out there with no jackets and I told the parents they could put them in my car," Krogmann said.
