By Paige Hewitt and Anita Hassan
The Houston Chronicle
KATY, Texas — Three women died in a Katy house fire early Sunday, raising the Houston area’s casualty count for a deadly first weekend of 2011.
Since Saturday, at least three pedestrians have died after being hit by cars on area roads and freeways. Four homicides and one fatal car wreck also were reported.
The Katy house fire victims, who were not identified, died as a blaze roared through the back half of the tidy, white-brick structure in the 22800 block of Braken Carter in the Williamsburg Colony subdivision.
Next-door neighbor Liz Nugent was alerted to the fire about 7 a.m. when a passer-by knocked at her front door.
Nugent ran to the burning home and frantically banged on the door, trying to help.
“I knew there was somebody inside. I could hear crackling and the smoke alarms going off, but nothing else,” she said. “I really feel bad for them. They seemed like very nice people. You see them one day, and now they’re gone.”
Firefighters arrived moments later, extinguishing the blaze and discovering the remains of the three women. One was buried under considerable debris from the attic, said Assistant Chief Mark Holloway, from the West I-10 Volunteer Fire Department.
The Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fatal fire, and Holloway said there was no obvious indication of how it started.
Nugent said she knew little of the three women who died but described the residents of the house as quiet, gentle-mannered people who carefully tended a flower bed in the front yard.
Several family members arrived as firefighters pulled heavy hoses from the house and the medical examiner removed the bodies. They cried and embraced one another in a driveway across the street.
“It’s a tragedy,” Nugent said.
It was one of several as the new year began.
Three people died in separate auto-pedestrian accidents:
Around 1 a.m. Saturday, a man identified as Sean Sutton died after he was struck by a car northbound on Elrod near Clay.
About 8:20 p.m. Saturday, Norbis Francisco Lopez, 25, was struck by two vehicles in the 13500 block of the Eastex Freeway.
About 5 a.m. Sunday, a woman trying to cross the Southwest Freeway near Bellaire died after being struck by several cars. She had not been identified as of Sunday night.
Authorities also investigated three homicides Saturday:
Around 5:45 a.m., Houston police found a man who had been stabbed to death in his southwest-side apartment in the 19400 block of Coventry Square. His identity was not released.
About 6 a.m., Alberto Hernandez, 39, was found stabbed to death in the 18400 block of Westgate Pasture, where he had welcomed in the new year at a party. Harris County sheriff’s deputies arrested the homeowner and party host, Hector Salazar Rivera, 32, in connection with the killing.
Around 3:30 p.m., Willie Staggers, 30, was found dead of stab wounds at his apartment in the 6100 block of East Sam Houston Parkway. Deputies said Staggers’ girlfriend reported finding him after not hearing from him in several days.
Other deaths
Houston police also are investigating a homicide in which the victim died Sunday. That crime occurred Friday night in the 2500 block of Winrock, but no further details were immediately available.
Also Saturday, a man identified by sheriff’s deputies as Victor Renaud died after being ejected from his car in the 2500 block of Louetta around 2 a.m.
The violent deaths were precipitated by other fatal encounters on New Year’s Eve:
Shortly after 9 a.m., a woman identified by sheriff’s deputies as Mary Jackson Pena died in a hit-and-run car wreck in the 15900 block of Ella near West Richey.
At 6:20 p.m., a convenience-store customer, Saturnino Argueta, 57, was fatally shot during a robbery in the 5600 block of Beechnut.
Around 8 p.m., an unidentified man died after he was hit by a Ford F150 and a Ford Taurus while trying to walk across the North Freeway in the 4900 block.
Copyright 2011 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved