Houston Chronicle
(TNS)
Nov. 7—When Marcelo Garcia walked into Houston Fire Station No. 23, he was practically at home.
For the last six years, Garcia worked in a building across from Milby High School, where he was once a student athlete. When he responded to emergency calls, he drove down the streets he grew up on and helped people who knew him and his family.
That's why Houston City Councilman Joaquin Martinez, who grew up with the firefighter in Magnolia Park , was relieved when Garcia was on the scene after his mother suffered a fall.
"The East End, that was his neighborhood, he loved it," Martinez said. "It was a good feeling to see Marcelo there. He really understood that aspect. He knew his friends."
Garcia died Wednesday after being caught under falling debris at a warehouse fire in Houston's East End. He was 42.
Garcia's friends and colleagues remembered him as a cool-headed, smiling, hard worker.
"He was cool as a cucumber," said Jose Murdock Cortez, one of the captains at Station 23. "He never got worked up. It makes a captain's job easier when you have a person who knows what to do."
Garcia loved baseball, the sport he played in high school, and was known for his fast-paced 3 p.m. workouts at the station, said firefighter Richard Gutierrez III, who worked with Garcia for his entire time at the station.
Garcia's death caused a lot of pain among the firefighters there, Gutierrez said.
"There's a lot of wondering why and how — why him?" Gutierrez said. "He made an impact in the community for sure. There really wasn't a place that you could go where they didn't know Marcelo."
Retired Houston Fire Department District Chief Theodore Rocha said he and Garcia developed a bond over their shared support of the Magnolia Park Sharks football team, which Garcia had played for in his youth.
"He was a neighborhood kid," Rocha said. "For him to grow up in Houston and work in the neighborhood he grew up in, it's very very rare."
His loss is "going to stick for a long time," Rocha said.
Fire Department Captain Jesse Santillano said he first met Garcia before he became a firefighter, when he was picking up T-shirts for an annual softball tournament meant to raise money to buy toys for Magnolia Park children. Though older and more gray-haired than most rookies, he jumped into the job with enthusiasm, Santillano said.
Garcia was the "standard-bearer of our family," said Jay Jimenez, Garcia's younger cousin who stopped by the Lockwood Street fire station to speak with other firefighters.
"He was always willing to stand up for his family," Jimenez said. Just a few weeks ago, upon learning that Jimenez, a veteran, was looking for work, Garcia offered to start guiding the younger man into the fire department.
"He loved his job," Jimenez said. "He was all for it."
He is survived by his mother, siblings and a large extended family, many of who still live in the East End, Martinez said.
Firefighters were first called the warehouse at 6536 Supply Row around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday, Houston Fire Chief Tom Munoz said during an early-morning press conference outside Memorial Hermann hospital. A second alarm was called at 11:04 p.m., and a minute later a mayday call was put out because of a wall collapse.
Garcia and another firefighter was injured at during fire, officials said. The other hospitalized firefighter was expected to be released from the hospital on Thursday.
Authorities haven't speculated on the cause of the fire. On Thursday morning, fire department arson investigators were joined by agents from the Texas Department of Insurance and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in surveying the fire site. The remains of the collapsed north facade of the building sat in a pile. Late in the day, investigators began to pick through the debris, removing helmets, boots and other items and photographing them
Garcia is the first Houston Fire Department firefighter to die from injuries caused by a fire since four died in the 2013 Southwest Inn fire. Twelve other firefighters were injured in the blaze, one of who later died from his injuries. That fire prompted multiple investigations, including an independent review by the city which revealed the firefighters were put in harms way by radio problems and a limited planning.
From 2000 to 2013, 11 Houston firefighters died on duty while inside burning buildings. The toll prompted calls for the fire department to change its tactics for protocols when first arriving at burning structures.
No memorial plans had been announced as of Thursday afternoon.
___
(c)2024 the Houston Chronicle
Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
