Martin Rodriguez said he’d just arrived at work Tuesday morning when his brother called and told him to rush home immediately.
He didn’t know it at the time, but his Oak Cliff home on Champagne Drive had just erupted into flames, all while his wife and five children were still inside.
“She told me she was cleaning the table in the kitchen when she heard the explosion. She started running to the girls’ room because they were already screaming,” Rodriguez said in Spanish.
“She went to the room, they were screaming. The windows were already broken. She pulled the girls out of there. First one and then the other.”
The girls were 3-year-old Janet and 8-year-old Jenny.
Rodriguez also had three sons in the house: 18-year-old Fernando, 17-year-old Martin and 11-year-old Louis.
Neighbors told NBC 5 they saw someone who they believed to be Martin continuously running back inside the house to help his siblings.
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All five family members were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and have a combination of burns on their hands, legs and backs.
Rodriguez said his sons Martin and Louis suffered the worst injuries.
By Wednesday afternoon, Louis was undergoing his second surgery.
“They tell me they’re very positive. I’m very proud of them. They were very brave. I get my strength from them,” father Martin Rodriguez said.
Remarkably, he said the two girls should be released from the hospital sometime Wednesday.
Firefighters suspect a gas leak led to the explosion, which leveled the home.
Martin Rodriguez said his family had been living in the home for several years and does have insurance.
“With God’s help everything is going to be OK. The first thing for me right now is my family. We know God is going to help us little bit by little bit. We’ll worry about everything else later,” he said.
