The Medellin family was asleep when neighbors and dogs alerted them to the house fire. The family escaped from a bedroom window.
FORT WORTH, Texas — The holiday lights were hung outside of the Medellin family’s home, but this Christmas didn’t turn out the way they imagined.
The Fort Worth Fire Department said early Monday they responded to a house fire along Weber Street in the city’s Northside neighborhood.
The family made it out safely, but their entire home and everything inside was lost.
Homeowner Monica Medellin, a mom of three, said she, her husband and her children were asleep in a bedroom when she woke up to the sound of her dogs barking outside.
When Medellin stepped out to the living room, she saw the flames and heavy smoke.
“I screamed at my husband, ‘There’s fire, we need to get the girls out!’” Medellin said.
Medellin said they grabbed their young daughters and jumped from the bedroom window. The house’s front door was already in flames. A neighbor helped them escape through the window.
Around a minute later, the bedroom where they slept was engulfed in flames, Medellin said.
Fort Worth fire crews determined the fire’s cause was electrical.
“Everything’s gone. It’s really hard,” Medellin said. “My kids wanna come back to their home, and we’re just not able to come back.”
Medellin launched a GoFundMe to recover from their losses.
The day after the fire, the same crew returned and reached out to Fort Worth Firefighter Charities. Together, they pitched in to buy holiday gifts for the family. The crew showed up to deliver the gifts to the family in-person.
“We’re grateful,” Medellin said.
Medellin said they have a long road to recovery, but she’s grateful her family made it out safely. The family didn’t have home insurance.
“If it’s even just a roof over your head, be very very grateful for what you have,” Medellin said.