CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Valentine's Day begin with tragedy after an early-morning fire left an elderly woman is dead on the city's west side.
The house is on the 900 block of National Drive in the city's Molina neighborhood.
By the time her west side neighbors and Corpus Christi firefighters tried getting inside, it was too late to save the woman residents say lived there.
Guy Lewis lives across the street.
He said by the time his dogs woke him up, and he went outside, the house was already on fire.
But he and a neighbor still did what they could to get the woman out.
"And I crawled in there, only about 10 feet, and then that smoke hit me and knocked me out," he said. "Then he tried to go in there. I had to pull him out."
Corpus Christi Fire Chief Robert Rocha said firefighters did what they could as soon as they got to the scene.
"Upon arrival, they had heavy fire conditions showing, so it was very difficult, but crews were able to get inside," he said. "But unfortunately, we do have one fatality."
Investigators have identified the victim as 93-year-old Lorene Hill.
Rocha said the department's investigation should show how the fire started.