AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Feb. 22 started as just another day for Paul Kirkpatrick. The Lubbock and Tyler native, who studied at UT Austin and spent his professional career in Dallas, went to play tennis at the Sheraton Buganvilas Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Kirkpatrick and his life partner moved to the resort city nearly 10 years ago.
About 30 minutes into his morning matches, Kirkpatrick spotted a plume of smoke in the distance.
“I thought that might be a brush fire,” Kirkpatrick said. “Just a few minutes later, I noticed another billow of smoke in a different direction. Then a third one and a fourth one and a fifth one.”
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Eventually, the group put down their tennis rackets to figure out what was going on. Naturally, they ran to their phones…