A woman in California died early Christmas morning in a house fire sparked by an artificial Christmas tree.
Destiny Abdrazack, 22, was celebrating Christmas Eve with her fiancé’s family in their North Highlands home when an electrical short from the tree ignited a fire around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Dec 25, local NBC affiliate KCRA3 reported.
Abdrazack screamed and this woke the five others in the house, according to her fiancé’s father Ernest Isom.
"She was the one who yelled fire, and that’s the sad part," Isom told KCRA3 of the woman who was to be his future daughter-in-law.
"She saved our lives."
Abdrazack was pulled out of the burning building by firefighters but later died at an area hospital.
Two family dogs also died in the fire and the house was destroyed.
The five others in the house — Isom, his wife and son and two other adults — survived.
Isom said the family had fallen asleep without turning off the Christmas tree lights.
"Unfortunately, they wanted to keep the lights on until the last minute and we all happened to fall asleep and we had an instant, seconds to get out," he told the station. "It was fast, and that’s how quick it went. I’m talking minutes."