A family of four tries to get their lives back on track after a Christmas tree decoration sets an entire house on fire, leaving the father and two daughters with just moments to get out alive.
Father George was at home with the couple’s two girls in the family’s two-storey townhouse in Melbourne’s eastern suburb of Glen Waverley when the smoke alarm went off and he saw the Christmas tree on fire about 12.40pm on Sunday.
George tried to get the tree out of the house and put it out with a hose, but the fire spread too quickly and forced him to flee the spreading fire with his two daughters.
Wife and mother Roula, who was working at the time, said she was grateful they all made it out alive.
“My husband and children are safe,” she told Seven News on Monday.
‘Everything just happened very quickly. Christmas is literally ruined.”
Although the fire was deemed under control at 2:05 p.m., it took a total of 38 firefighters and 12 trucks to extinguish the blaze.
The inferno also caused small fires in neighboring properties and spread to the highway embankment behind the house.
This mansion in Melbourne’s east was destroyed by a fast-moving fire caused by a Christmas tree decoration
While a father and two daughters were able to escape the burning house safely, their family of four is left with virtually nothing
George was taken to hospital to be treated for burns to his legs and arms.
Family friend Maria Bulovic started one GoFundMe page for the devastated family, who she said had “lost everything and were left with only their clothes.”
“They had lived in their home for 24 years and it held a lifetime of memories,” she wrote on the page.
“This is so devastating, not only so close to Christmas, but now they’re trying to somehow get their lives back to normal for the family and their children.”
She said any donation to the page would help the family rebuild their shattered lives.
“Your donation will greatly help with basic needs, clothing, Christmas gifts, food and anything else they need at this very tragic time in their lives,” she wrote.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the GoFundMe had raised more than $20,000 of its $50,000 goal.
The gutted mansion will have to be demolished.