All that's left of the place Guadalupe Vargas Rodriguez and her family used to call home is a pile of charred debris now.

The family's hard work for a better place was gone in an instant after a fire destroyed their home in La Grulla on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.

“It was where my mom got to rebuild because we had a way smaller home. It took us a lot to save that money so we could have something to live in,” Vargas Rodriguez said.

Vargas Rodriguez, who is blind, is a UTRGV student. She said she lost her laptop and school books in the fire, and is going to be forced to drop out of college to focus full-time on helping her family.

Other items lost in the fire, Vargas Rodriguez said, cannot be replaced.

“I had just gotten married about a month ago, and so I lost my [wedding] dress and my husb

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