State officials investigate suspicious Rio Grande City house fire

FOR THE RECORD 

RIO GRANDE CITY | SUSPICIOUS FIRE

State fire marshals are investigating a house fire that destroyed a two-story home on Farm-to-Market Road 755 early Saturday.

A 9-1-1 caller reported the fire at 5179 N. FM 755 shortly after 1 a.m., said Domingo Hinojosa, San Isidro's deputy fire chief. Though firefighters reached the house within five minutes of the call, it already had been burning for quite some time. Hinojosa said an accelerant may have been a factor.

"The only things that survived were the four first-floor brick walls," Hinojosa said. "Everything was fully engulfed (in flames)."

State fire marshals are investigating the blaze, said Jerry Hagins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, which includes the state fire marshal's office. The department will not comment on the fire while the investigation ongoing.

"In general we're asked to look at fires when local authorities are suspicious," Hagins said.

No one was home during the fire, Hinojosa said.

Betty Guerra, the owner, could not be reached for comment.

LA JOYA | IMMIGRANT CHASE

A truckload of suspected illegal immigrants led police on a short chase here early Tuesday morning, ending when the group of 19 fled into the brush.

U.S. Border Patrol agents later picked up three women from the group: a mother and her daughter, both from El Salvador, and a woman from Guatemala. The others escaped, said Officer Joe Cantu, a La Joya police spokesman.

Police began following the coyote, or human smuggler, after he stopped in an employee parking lot at a local medical building along Expressway 83 between Peñitas and La Joya about 5:30 a.m., hours before anyone else would typically arrive at the building, Cantu said.

An officer watched the illegal immigrants cram into the truck. When the officer approached, the coyote drove away, leading police to the Terra Blanca subdivision. The smuggler and at least 16 illegal immigrants fled into the brush and evaded authorities.

SAN JUAN | STOLEN VEHICLE

Police made an unusual discovery Tuesday morning when they found a U.S. Border Patrol radio inside a stolen Jeep.

The driver of the Jeep had burglarized a Border Patrol agent's car sometime Tuesday morning at his Pharr residence, taking with him the agent's hat and radio, said San Juan Police Investigator Rolando Garcia.

Later, about 8:30 a.m., near the intersection of "I" Road and the Expressway 83 frontage road, 28-year-old Daniel Velasquez was struck by another vehicle and crashed the Jeep, Garcia said.

Velasquez, who Garcia described as a career criminal, was taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.

He is expected to be charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle along with other charges.

"We're talking with Border Patrol to see if maybe they're going to file on him for violating any federal laws," Garcia said.

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Monitor staff writers Sean Gaffney and Dave Hendricks Jr. compiled this report.