Residents said years of complaints about a nearby encampment ended in a fire that destroyed one home and damaged two others.
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — A 66-year-old man lost the home he grew up in after a large fire with explosions tore through a neighboring property in Casa Grande on April 18 and spread to nearby houses, according to local officials and residents.
Neighbors said the loss was more than a house fire. Robert Soto’s family described the burned home as a longtime gathering place tied to generations of relatives, while city records cited in local reporting show officials had opened 19 cases on the neighboring property since 2019 over trash, drugs and sanitation concerns. The fire came before a court-ordered cleanup deadline of May 11, sharpening questions about what action had been taken and whether it came too late.
Soto said the fire exploded into his life late Saturday after he had come home from work and was inside watching television. He told local TV station FOX 10 that someone pounded on his door to warn him his house was on fire. Soto said he ran toward the backyard and tried to fight the flames with water before an explosion knocked him backward. Police officers then forced him to leave the property, he said, because he did not want to walk away while the fire spread. By the next day, he and relatives were sorting through a blackened shell of what they called a total loss. The home, family members said, had long served as a meeting place where relatives gathered for dances, meals and celebrations.
Residents said the danger next door had been building for years. Soto said he repeatedly complained to the city and believed a smaller fire had broken out on the same property about four years earlier. Other neighbors said people were coming and going from the site for years and that drug use, tents and piles of trash were common. Desiree Hernandez, Soto’s niece, said the destruction felt preventable because the family believed city leaders knew the property had become hazardous. City information cited in the FOX 10 report said the neighboring site on North Trekell Road had drawn 19 opened cases since 2019. Complaints included sanitation problems, garbage buildup and illegal activity. Residents also said the property lacked running water and electricity, forcing people staying there to live in dangerous conditions.
The neighboring property had become a flashpoint well before the fire. According to the report, the homeowner had allowed homeless people to stay there, and some neighbors said the site operated like a rough encampment. One longtime resident, Fernando Yubeta, said people in the area had feared a major fire was only a matter of time. The city said it had spent years trying to move the case through legal channels and eventually served the homeowner with violations last year. After a final warning, a judge ruled the property had to be cleaned up, with the work scheduled for May 11. That timeline now sits at the center of neighborhood anger. Hernandez said the order came too late for a family whose home and memories were already gone.
Officials have not publicly identified the exact cause of the blaze, and the fire remains under investigation. Because of the intensity of the flames, the explosions and the amount of destruction, authorities said the cause is being treated as suspicious. Earlier reporting on the incident said Casa Grande crews were sent to the home at about 10 p.m. April 18 and arrived to find the structure engulfed. Firefighters had to work through heavy debris that included vehicles, trash and propane tanks. The flames spread to two neighboring homes, displacing families in both. Officials also said a person living at the property returned just after 6:30 a.m. the next day seeking treatment for burns to his hands. No formal finding on criminal responsibility had been announced in the reporting available Tuesday.
On the burned block, the loss has left a mix of grief, anger and disbelief. Relatives described clearing debris from the property while trying to save whatever could still be recognized. Neighbors said they were not only mourning a destroyed structure, but also the end of a place tied to family history. Soto’s relatives said the home had passed through generations and stood as part of the family’s identity in Casa Grande. Even as authorities focus on what sparked the fire, the people living around North Trekell Road are left with the immediate reality of displacement, cleanup and rebuilding after a disaster they say they had warned about for years.
The fire’s cause remained under investigation as of April 20, and the next key step is a formal finding from fire and police officials on how the blaze began and whether any enforcement or legal action will follow.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.