Toni Rodgers awoke late Thursday night to the insistent beep of an alarm and smoke so thick she could hardly see.
Rodgers' house in the 3300 block of McGowen Street in the Third Ward was on fire. Her first thought was to save her three daughters and two nieces, who were asleep in the back of the house.
But the smoke was so thick that Rodgers, 32, couldn't reach the girls. She ran out the front door screaming for help.
"I was screaming, I was crying, I was banging on windows, busting windows, trying to get them out of there," she said. "The thought of somebody dying was so devastating to me. The thought that I was out, and they were in, was just completely unthinkable."
Someone heard her screams and called 911 at 11:40 p.m., kicking off a desperate rescue effort that would involve bystanders, Houston police officers and firefighters, all of whom worked together to pull Rodgers' children from the blazing house.
On patrol nearby were two Houston policemen: Senior Officer John Domingues, 44, and his partner, Senior Officer Colonel La Munyon, 56, both veterans assigned to the Houston Police Department's South Central Patrol Division.
"When we rounded the corner onto McGowen, my partner said, 'I smell smoke,' " La Munyon said. "I saw there was a crowd of people in the street and I said, 'Whatever is going on is probably happening down there.' "
The entire structure was engulfed at that point.
"The whole house was like a chimney," Domingues said. "Smoke was just rolling out of there."
One of Rodgers' friends and some neighbors had managed to pull four of the children out by breaking windows and removing an air-conditioning unit, but one 15-year-old girl was still inside.
The officers alerted the Houston Fire Department, then La Munyon ran to the front of the house while Domingues raced to the back.
Blown back by heat
Neighbors pointed Domingues to a window and told him the girl was trapped behind burglar bars bolted to the window frame. The officer shattered the window, raked the shards away and - with the help of bystanders - used his baton to pry the bars loose.
Domingues said that while his police training covered running toward gunfire, climbing into a burning building was something else.
Still, he didn't hesitate. "You're going to do what you have to do to try to save a human life," he said.
Domingues was about halfway through the window when a blast of heat blew him backward onto the pavement. Others pulled him to his feet, shaken, but not injured.
By this time, Houston firefighters had arrived, just three minutes after receiving the emergency call.
Officers hoisted Capt. David Pate, of HFD's Engine 25, through the window. He found the unconscious teen and passed her back out to police, who carried her to an ambulance.
The fire's cause has yet to be determined, said HFD Capt. Ruy Lozano.
Officers deflect praise
Both La Munyon and Domingues commended the firefighters afterward.
"The fire department did the heavy lifting and they should get the lion's share of the credit," said La Munyon. "My hat's off to these guys. They do it every day."
He also had praise for the bystanders.
"They have some good neighbors here, some people that really tried to help," La Munyon said.
Rodgers' youngest daughter, Justice, 11, was in fair condition Friday at Children's Memorial Hermann. Nieces Auntrenae, 10, and Alvea, 15, were both in critical condition, the younger one at Hermann, and the teen at Shriners Hospital in Galveston.
Daughters Alexis, 16, and Alanis, 12, were treated and released. They returned with their mom Friday to their burnt-out home, shoeless and clad in hospital gowns. Everything they owned is gone.
Rodgers has lived in the 1938 frame house, which she owns, for nine years. She was able to salvage only a few items: an empty fish tank, a trash bin, a TV stand with no TV on it. Her car keys are missing, so she can't even use her vehicle.
"I don't know what's going to happen, but I have five girls," Rodgers said, picking gingerly through the soot and grime in her slippers and pajamas. "I've gotta make something happen. I can't be homeless."
'At least they didn't die'
Rodgers is separated from her husband. She took in her nieces after her sister - their mother - was incarcerated. Child Protective Services was going to place the girls in foster homes, Rodgers said, but she felt they needed family, so she stepped in.
"I really couldn't afford it, but I did it, right before school started," she said. "I was proud to know they haven't missed any days of school since."
Thanks to the HFD and Red Cross, the family has donated clothes, some Wal-Mart gift cards and a small apartment to live in for a few weeks through the Star of Hope shelter.
After that, an uncertain New Year looms.
Rodgers, a former hospital technician, is unemployed, and the house was not insured.
"This makes it even tougher," she said.
"I'm not even myself," she said. "I'm kind of disoriented. I'm coping with it spiritually. At least they didn't die."
