A Texas mom and her 1-year-old son died in a fire that broke out in their home. Although the mom, Giovanna Cabrera, 31, was heroically able to rescue her 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, she and her infant, Gabriel Cabrera, did not survive the fire.
The fire broke out at the Houston home in the early morning hours on Saturday, February 3, 2024. Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña posted on social media that the mother died as she re-entered the home to save her child “from the flames.”
Firefighters found the bodies of the mother and son in the home. They also reported that there were no other injuries. One neighbor said she heard children screaming in Spanish for help. “I heard banging on the door and kids crying for help,” Savannah Hernandez reported. “They are little kids, and you just never know what could happen. They were barefooted.”
“The mother rescued two of her children from a house fire but died while trying to save her baby boy. We are working to make sure this family has the support they need in their time of grief,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a Facebook post. “Please extend a prayer today for a local family.”
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Peña called the deaths “heartbreaking.” He said authorities usually tell people that they should stay outside once they flee from a structure fire. “How do you tell that to a mother whose child is inside the home?” Peña told reporters. “Our prayers & condolences to the family,” the fire chief added.
In an interview, Giovanna’s sister, Giselle Bueno, said that the smoke and flames overcame her sibling. “She had him in her arms like the baby, so I know she tried. I know if she could’ve, she would have made it out,” Bueno said. “I can only imagine how scared she was,” the sister continued.
“It’s still surreal. Like, I feel like she’s just somewhere else,” the grieving sister further added. “Like I’m going to see her later on. This feels like just the house burned. It feels like nothing happened to my sister or the baby.”
The surrounding community has rallied to help her two surviving children, who are currently with their father. Following the tragic loss, an online fundraiser has raised more than $24,000 that will provide clothes and other necessities for the children as well as cover funeral costs.
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“It is nice to see how important she was and how everyone sees her as she was because she was a hero,” Bueno stated. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, but photos from the scene show little remains of the home but charred wreckage.
While it’s unclear what sparked the dangerous fire, Houston firefighters said they would walk around the neighborhood to hand out safety tips. They also said they would talk to residents about having operating smoke detectors, home escape plans, and fire prevention.
“It’s important for us to do that because our job is to ensure that our community feels safe, especially after a tragedy like this,” Peña said. Furthermore, he stated that first responders would hand out 150 packages of information to people in the community. He also mentioned they want to focus on informing underserved communities.
“We will go out to certain neighborhoods, especially the underserved areas, to try to push this message out because that’s where we see the majority of fire-related incidents. Unfortunately, as we have seen in this tragic event, we have had a large number of fire deaths in our community,” Peña added.
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