HOUSTON — A family is grieving after a woman was found dead in an apartment fire in southeast Houston Wednesday night.
The Houston Fire Department responded to the fire shortly before 10:30 p.m. at an apartment building on Fairway Drive, which is near the South Loop and the Gulf Freeway.
KHOU 11's Ugochi Iloka spoke with the woman's husband, who said he's still trying to find a way to tell his 10- and 6-year-old sons that they not only lost their home, but their mother too.
"She was just the best thing that ever happened to me," Andrew Salinas said. "And now it's Christmas and now I have to explain to the boys."
Salinas identified the victim as his wife, 33-year-old Keila Almonte.
In a video shared by a neighbor who didn't want to be identified, you can hear Salinas yelling for Almonte to break a window to escape the fire.
"As I was shooting the video, I was walking around the apartment trying to hear if somebody was screaming or what room they were in," he said.
Salinas said he tried to go back for his wife who he thought was likely looking for their cat.
"I was telling the firemen, 'Hey man, she's up there, she's up there.' He was like, 'No sir, there's nobody up there.' I was like, 'Sir, she's up there.'"
Almonte's body was found in the apartment after HFD got control of the fire.
"Everything burned down and I don't really care about none of that. I just want my wife back," Salinas said.
Salinas, his two sons and his brother made it out of the apartment alive.
The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the cause of the fire.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Almonte's family with funeral expenses.