Fireproof Love: Surviving the Heart-Wrenching Experience of an Industrial Accident

By Gabriel Alvarado, Precious Alvarado and Les Brown

Fireproof Love is a story of unconditional love, inspiration, faith, and an eye-opener of how a life-changing event can teach us to:
• Conquer the unbearable
• Reach for new heights
• Turn defeat into triumphs
• Adapt to moving on with a “new normal”
The story introduces us to Gabe Alvarado, a courageous man who lived through an explosion while working at a Texas refinery. He went through a ball of fire and after a hard and painful recovery came back transformed! The accident may have changed his outer shell, but the inner Gabe is now, fearless, resilient and more optimistic than ever.
His co-author and wife, Precious Alvarado, testifies to that in this book. Her realization of the risks and uncertainties of making life or death decisions on behalf of Gabe will touch your heart. Precious shares the agony of not having discussed the what-ifs of the unthinkable with her husband. They set the mood for readers to contemplate, just how prepared, one needs to be in case tragedy knocks at the door.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543921953

Book preview

Gabe

CHAPTER 1

Two weeks before the accident, my wife, Precious, and I were sitting in the Hummer dealership buying her dream car. I remember clear as day, we were excited because it was the beginning of summer, a beautiful June afternoon- the car dealer looked up from his paperwork and said, For a bit more, you can get you some life insurance.

I turned to her and said, We don’t need that. We’re young! We’re not going to get hurt. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

It’s surprising how we believe that tomorrow will always come; we must remember that tomorrow isn’t promised.

The night before the accident, we were at a birthday party. We’d gone to a few summer birthday parties that day, and the last one was in a water park for kids. I was tired because I’d been working every day that week. I left for work early in the morning and got home at 4:30 or 5 pm.

Are you sure you want to go to this last party? Precious asked. You need to go to bed. You’re working in the morning.

It’s fine. I want to be with you tonight.

The park was only 30 minutes away, after all. I went with them, and I thank God that I did. That evening became a beautiful memory I’ll never forget.

July 18th, a crisp July evening in Corpus Christi, Texas, and all the kids at the park were swimming. There was a huge projector set up -a movie was on while the kids played in the pool.

Precious and I were sitting on lawn chairs and Precious said, Wow, it’s so great you’re working. It’s a blessing you got this refinery job -it’s the job you always wanted! Look at all the overtime you’re getting. We going to start to really pay off our debts. We were holding hands.

Gabe, we’re so blessed. It’s like a dream come true; it’s weird that we’re finally where we want to be. We both have jobs, and maybe, in a few years, I could quit and stay home with the kids. Our oldest son Angel, was 9, totally into X-Box, Play Station and Baseball. Victoria was just 7 and very much into doll houses and American Girl dolls, we wanted to make sure they had everything they wanted.

I promised her, right there, that I would make that happen. I said, I’m going to work as much as I can. I see good days coming. I think I’m qualified for that promotion to the safety job. It’s going to work out. We sat together alone as the park grew dark.

After a while, Precious tried to get the kids out of the pool so we could get ready to go. But for some reason, I stopped her, and invited her to wait just a little bit longer. The movie was still playing. It was The Lion King. The kids were out of the pool by this point and were so exhausted that they fell asleep. Precious and I worked together to dress our son, Angel. Precious held our daughter Victoria in her arms. I’ll never forget that moment. We were talking; nobody could hear us. It was just the two of us and our little family.

My entire world was blown apart. I’d never talked to Gabe about this sort of thing, and on top of it all, I was bombarded with medical decisions.

- Precious

CHAPTER 2

The next day, July 19th, 2009-It was Sunday morning and almost time to wake up the kids for church. I was making breakfast in the kitchen when my phone rang. I saw that it was my sister. I thought I’d just call her back after I was done cooking. She called a second time, and I thought, Okay, that’s weird and wiped my hands on my apron. On her third call I answered. She was frantic.

She asked, Have you talked to Gabe?

No, Why?

She was silent and then said, Oh, nothing, and hung up.

I didn’t know what to think. I immediately texted Gabe: Are you okay?

A Few minutes later, my sister called me, Precious, have you talked to Gabe? There was an explosion in the unit and someone died.

I was sitting down at this point. I couldn’t stop texting. Gabe, are you okay? Gabe, just text me a letter, a number, something. Just let me know you’re okay.

Gabe wasn’t responding. He always responds.

Angel, Victoria! I yelled. They came down the stairs.

Both of you need to start praying. Get on your knees and start praying. Someone from Dad’s work got hurt. It could be Daddy’s friend, or it could be Daddy. We need to pray for them.

My sister called me back, Precious, it was Gabe. They pulled his body out. The kids were watching me at this point. I had to tell them.

It was your dad.

Victoria said Shit, let’s go to the refinery. She’d never cursed before, and I could feel her passion to do something. I called my dad, because he worked at the refinery and must know something. My dad didn’t answer, so I called my mom and she didn’t answer either. I couldn’t find my keys. I felt lost.

Let’s hurry. We want to see Dad. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that their dad was dead. Just then, my dad called me back.

Dad, what am I supposed to do?

If anything, go to Memorial Hospital. That’s where they’d take him.

By the time I found my keys, my sister was already in my driveway. She drove through every red light to get there, which was 15 minutes away from our house.

I kept telling her to slow down, and I finally said, If Gabe’s dead, we don’t need to die too. Just slow down!

What do you mean he’s dead?

We pulled up to Memorial Medical Center in Corpus Christi and the Refinery Terminal Fire Company (RTFC) had just dropped off Gabe. The RTFC, as the group is known, was the responder team were Gabe was