The casket of Marisol Pérez and Erik Pérez Jr., who died in a late May apartment fire, is wheeled past surviving family members including Erik and Vanessa Pérez during a funeral mass at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Dallas, Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Vanessa Pérez was outfitted head-to-toe in light pink Tuesday as her family gathered for Mass at St. Cecilia Catholic Church and a burial service at Laurel Land Memorial Park to lay her mother, Marisol Pérez, and younger brother, Erik Pérez Jr., to rest.
Marisol and her 18-month-old son died in a May 28 explosion and five-alarm fire at Oak Cliff’s Clyde apartments. Vanessa was rescued from the burning building just days before she turned 10.
Rodney Brown, who pulled Vanessa from the complex, also wore pink — a favorite color Vanessa and her mother shared — and gave the 10-year-old a golden necklace with a cross pendant after Tuesday’s Mass.
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Rodney Brown attends a funeral mass in Dallas, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at St. Cecilia Catholic Church for Marisol Pérez and Erik Pérez Jr. who died in a late May apartment fire. Brown is credited for saving Marisol’s 10-year-old daughter Vanessa from the fire.
During the burial, Vanessa sat before her mother and brother’s coffin surrounded by family, clutched her father’s palm in her left hand and cradled a bouquet of bright pink flowers on the right.
The family stood in front of the freshly covered grave and after the burial released gold, white and pink balloons tied into the shape of two rosaries.
As attendees left the cemetery, they thanked Brown for saving Vanessa and shook his hand, to which he replied, “I wish I could’ve saved them all … but I couldn’t.”
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The explosion also killed Sylvia Collins, a Dallas County Democratic precinct chair, and injured five others.
Friends and community members, including Brown and representatives from Mission Oak Cliff, gathered for the funeral Mass for Marisol and Erik that preceded the graveside service. The Mass was conducted in Spanish by Father Cruz Calderon, parish priest of St. Cecilia.
Rev. Cruz Calderon leads a procession of pallbearers holding a casket into St. Cecilia Catholic Church before a funeral mass for Marisol Pérez and Erik Pérez Jr. who died in a late May apartment fire in Dallas, Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Stained glass cast rainbows across the church’s beige tile floors as people bowed their heads, listening to the melancholy echo of a grand piano near the altar. Attendees dipped their fingers in holy water as they entered and sat among dozens of others dressed in pink and white along the rows of wooden pews.
Rev. Calderon said it was time to celebrate the lives of Marisol and Erik and remember them with love.
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“This is one of the most painful moments, and we ask ourselves: Why has this happened? Why Marisol? Why the baby?” the Rev. Calderon said. “Death is a separation, a pain we cannot console; to her husband, her daughter Vanessa, her grandparents, brothers and sisters, we cannot offer words of encouragement or peace, but what does help greatly is prayer.”
Rev. Cruz Calderon raises a chalice next to deacon Andres Larraza during a funeral mass at St. Cecilia Catholic Church for Marisol Pérez and Erik Pérez Jr. who died in a late May apartment fire in Dallas, Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Throughout the Mass, the Rev. Calderon repeated a verse in the Bible’s Book of John 14:2: “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”
He said, “Grant that our sister, Marisol, and our brother, Erik, may be led to the eternal banquet of the kingdom of Christ, who lives and reigns throughout the ages. Amen.”
Rev. Calderon used incense to bless the coffin, which was covered with a white and gold-embossed pall, a large cloth that symbolizes the equality of all people before God and their new life in Christ, during the Final Commendation.
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Erik Pérez, Marisol’s husband, and other family members — wearing white shirts with pink flowers tucked into the pockets — carried the coffin out of the church and into a hearse before leaving for Laurel Land Memorial.
Erik Pérez, back right, keeps a hand on his wife Marisol and son Erik Pérez Jr.’s casket as a procession is led down the center ails of St. Cecilia Catholic Church for a funeral mass in Dallas, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. Marisol and Erik Jr. died in an apartment fire in late May.
At the Mass, María Gloria Rodriguez told The Dallas Morning News she knew Marisol for more than 30 years. She is a close friend of Marisol’s mother, who is also the godmother of one of Rodriguez’s daughters.
Rodriguez said it was painful to see the family enduring such a profound loss.
“Marisol was a great person. She was always smiling and willing to help others,” Rodriguez said. “I [have known] her since she was a little girl. She used to play with my kids when we were neighbors. We are deeply sorry for the loss of Marisol and her little angel.”
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Visitation and rosary services for the Pérez family were held Monday evening at the Hughes Funeral Home Oak Cliff chapel, where dozens of community members and loved ones gathered to mourn. The family also honored the mother and son with a vigil and altar set-up at their home on May 31.
Family members of Marisol Pérez and Erik Jr. Pérez, who died in a late May apartment fire, embrace each other during the burial in Dallas on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
The Collins family will hold services Saturday morning at Kessler Park United Methodist.
As of Tuesday afternoon, two lawsuits have been filed in connection with the fire; one on behalf of Collins and another for survivor Onesimo Ponce Mendoza. The Pérez family announced that they had retained a lawyer in a news conference last Friday, though it was not said when a lawsuit would be filed.
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Brown has lived in Clyde’s sister building, the Bonnie, for less than six months, he said. Though they have power, Brown said, Bonnie residents haven’t had gas to cook food or take a hot shower with since the explosion.