Fire leaves Yoakum family homeless

March 10--YOAKUM -- Under gray, rainy skies and the rumble of thunder, homeowner Lesa Kosteck looked at the twisted metal, concrete piers and charred remnants of what used to be her three-bedroom, one-bath house.

Her sons' burned lunch boxes sat abandoned on what was the patio. A piece of wood in the middle still glowed and smoked from the fire that claimed the structure Monday night.

"Everything of real and true importance got out," said Kosteck, 46. "But now, we start the process of having to pull everything together, and we have no insurance. So there we are."

The initial call to the Yoakum Fire Department was at 8:35 p.m. Monday to the 1100 block of Rappold Road, said Yoakum Fire Chief Mark Herchek. The home was in flames by the time fire crews arrived.

Kosteck, who was in San Antonio at the time, said her friend Renee Chaffin had been helping get Kosteck's sons -- Bryce, 26; Travis, 25; and Devin, 23 -- to and from work.

Chaffin, 44, said she had left the house to go pick up Kosteck's three sons, who work at Eddy Packing in Yoakum.

"When we got back, the boys went to get out of the truck and go to the front door, and there was smoke coming out of the house," she said.

Chaffin and Kosteck's sons went into the house to try to find the fire. She said it looked like it started behind the aquarium, but when they could not put it out, they took the dogs out of the house and backed away.

"There wasn't any time for us to get any of our belongings out," Chaffin said.

Kosteck said she was trying to get her sons on a solid footing two years after they had moved from the Fort Hood area to Yoakum. Bryce, who has autism, used to work at Fort Hood cleaning dining facilities there. Travis had recently gotten out of the military and was working to make enough money to buy a car.

"It sucks, but as long as we stick together, we'll be OK," Kosteck said as she tried not to let her emotions overtake her. "We just have to take it step-by-step and not get overwhelmed, which is what I'm seriously trying to do."

A GoFundMe account was started by a family friend. And an anonymous donor left immediate help, such as toothpaste and some clothes with Kosteck's neighbors, who relayed them to the family.

For now, the family is staying at the Woodfield Inn & Suites in Yoakum.

The American Red Cross-Crossroads Chapter helped the family negotiate a rate and provided them with a voucher for clothing.

"We don't know what exactly we're doing right now because it's only been a couple days, and we've been dealing with the initial everything," Kosteck said. "We're not sure where it's going to land, but we're going to get back out on our land because we own it, and this is home."

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