GREASE FIRE AT RTW (RALPH'S TACO STAND)

By Juan Montoya

More than six fire engines and scores of first respondent personnel rushed over to a car train fire at the Port of Brownsville only to find out that it was a grease fire at RTW.

No one was hurt in the fire that spewed black smoke into the air. It took about an hour for firefighters to douse the grease fire, according to hotshot Brownsville Fire Department Chief Lenny Perez.

Port authorities blocked off a one-mile radius to isolate the fire and to keep out the curious.

Sources close to the port said that Brownsville Navigation District commissioner Ralph Cowen was bringing in fatty oils for a new enterprise that will target workers of the various tenants at the port. The new enterprise, Ralph's Taco Wagon (RTW) was to use the oils to cook the tacos.

As is apparent to someone who meets Ralph for the first time, Cowen has not missed too many meals in his day. Known as the Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Brownsville, he uses his considerable girth to launch his famous Charro Days "Grito" every February.

"Ralph will recover from this small inconvenience," said a Cowen supporter. "You can't keep a good man down. He'll just swallow this small lump and roll along as usual."

Among his many interests in the maritime industry, Cowen is also pushing for the establishment of a cruise ship line on BND property. The taco stand, said our source, was an anchor in that larger enterprise.

"The skinny is that he was going to corner the culinary angle of the hospitality market created by the cruise ships," confided our source. "That Ralph doesn't leave any tortilla to chance."

Cowen, one of whose brothers works at the port and another for a state senator, is said to favor health-conscious recipes, and the fatty oils in the train cars were said to be special, low-cholesterol and low saturated fat-types for his tortillas.

"He prefers reconstituted wheat, canola oils, and that sort of thing to lower the fat content of his tortillas," said our source. "In a way he's like his brother with the state senator. He also favors tort reform."