SAN ANTONIO – A teenager got her brother and their dogs safely out of a house fire Saturday evening in the Stone Oak area.
Aria Jones, 15, was alone with her 10-year-old brother at her family's rented home on Enchanted Mist as her mother and stepfather were at a Christmas party. Aria said she was making dinner and video chatting with her older sister who noticed smoke on the ceiling.
The siblings rushed around the house looking for the source and found a small fire in her parents' closet. Though she put it out with an extinguisher, Aria said the fire reignited bigger than before.
Her sister was still on the video chat, Aria said, and told her to hang up and call 911, which she did.
Aria left the house with her brother and took him to a neighbor's house. When they asked about the family's two chocolate Labrador retrievers, Aria realized she had forgotten about the dogs.
"So I ran back into the house, and this time there was smoke down to my knees. And I unlocked their cages, and I let them run out and I left the door open to let the fumes come out," Jones said.
Acting San Antonio Fire Department Battalion Chief Fernando Castaneda said at the scene that the fire's cause was under investigation, but it appeared to have started in a bathroom and eventually worked into the attic.
Castaneda said there was structural damage to the home and estimated the total property loss at about $50,000.