Pueblo family deals with house fire after prior heartbreak

A house fire is just the latest heartbreak for one Pueblo family.

The blaze happened on West 13th Street near Baxter Street Saturday afternoon, and destroyed the two-story home and almost everything inside.

“My mind thought, ‘Wow that’s really devastating for the family,’ and I had a lot of anxiety and was just really scared,” said Ariana Marquez, a friend of the family’s.

Firefighters said several generations of the Spanish-speaking family lived at the home. Everyone escaped unharmed.

Marquez said this follows another tragedy for them.

“The owner has recently lost her husband, and they’ve been going through some pretty tough times,” she said.

She and other friends said that the owner’s daughter is pregnant and lost all the things she bought for her newborn. They said plans for a fundraiser are already underway.

Firefighters spent hours trying to salvage what they could. They said the fire spread quickly, and they were never able to get inside the house. The roof of the home was left with gaping holes.

“The roof is missing, it’s gone,” said neighbor Elric Franco as he watched the home burn. “It looks like a jigsaw puzzle.”

The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but firefighters said it started in the attic.