“This is our home”: Belton family returns home for Christmas almost a year after house explosion

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - A Belton family got a Christmas miracle, moving back into their newly-rebuilt home just days before Christmas.

Nearly 10 months ago, on March 2nd, Virginia Benavides says she and her family were out of town when they received a call from their neighbor that their house was on fire.

“The firefighters told us that there had been an explosion because the door had blown off of its hinges, all of the windows were blown out, and later we would find out that it was a furnace up in our attic that had been leaking gas,” Benavides recalled.

The explosion destroyed their home, which was built in the 1950s, and almost all of their personal belongings.

“All of those things that we had brought into the home to make it special, a lot of it we did end up losing,” Benavides shared.

While most people probably would have moved, Benavides said that was never an option for her.

“This is our home, these are our neighbors, this is our community… we never wanted to leave,” she said.

So instead they decided to tear it down and rebuild their home from the ground up.

“In some places we were able to keep the framework, but otherwise everything was completely torn down,” Benavides said, “we had to start from square one”.

While the process was long and exhausting, says she’s beyond grateful for those who supported her and her family along the way.

“I had so many helpful people during that time because it’s overwhelming and it’s a lot, especially when you’re grieving, to think how do we try and bring this back,” she shared.

They finally got to move back in last Friday, immediately putting up their Christmas decorations.

“The kids were really excited to know that we were gonna be able to spend Christmas at the house like we always had,” Benavides said.

“I feel good to be in it,” her son, 8-year-old Simon, said about finally being home again.

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