Brandon Gonzalez, Winston Salem autistic 13 year old boy identified as victim of blaze that killed teen after he got of a lighter and accidentally lit Christmas tree which in turn spread to the rest of the home.
A 13-year-old autistic boy has died after he got hold of a lighter, only to accidentally set fire to the Christmas tree at his family’s North Carolina home which rapidly engulfed the residence.
Brenda Contreras Juarez, 30, of Winston Salem has been left heartbroken following the death of her son, Brandon Gonzalez on Tuesday.
A caregiver — a grandmother — was looking after the austistic teen, and her five-year-old granddaughter at the time of the tragedy at 6:30 pm, myfox8 reported.
‘I miss him so much, and I am dying of sadness,’
Family members said the boy somehow got his hands on a lighter and set their family Christmas tree ablaze, causing a fire to quickly spread through the house.
The caregiver and girl managed to escape, with the young boy becoming trapped in the blaze despite rescue efforts from his caregiver.
The caregiver — whose identity was not revealed — suffered minor injuries from her efforts to save Brandon. She is now recovering in hospital.
The blaze led to substantive damages caused to the home, with Contreras Juarez losing all her possessions, WFMY reported.
Contreras Juarez, a single mom of three, has been left reeling from the loss of Brandon.
‘It’s been three days of tortures … I miss him so much, and I am dying of sadness,’ his grief-stricken mother said.
Brenda is taking it one day at a time, but she wants people to know more about her son who she says was full of life.
‘He always made me happy with his smile. He was my world,’ the mom told FOX8.
‘We lost all the material things … The most difficult thing is that we can’t recover what hurts us the most,’ Brenda’s aunt Noelia Juarez added.
Proper fire safety precautions
The house where Brenda lived alone with her three children, located on Fanning Pointe Lane, was completely destroyed by the fire.
Family members set up a GoFundMe page to collect money to help with funeral costs.
‘On behalf of Family Contreras Juarez, we are making this page to whomever would like to kindly donate in memory of Brandon Gonzalez, since he lost his life in a house fire,’ Noelia Juarez wrote on the page.
‘They lost everything, their home, and 13- year-old Brandon’s life. We ask for your help for what you can for funeral costs and to build a new home.’
Juarez said ‘he always made me happy with his smile. He was my world.’
It was especially heartbreaking for the family to lose the young boy during the Holiday season, just weeks before Brandon’s birthday.
Neighbors of the family witnessed the tragedy, describing the caregiver as a grandmother who managed to flee the blaze with her grandchild.
‘It makes me very very sad. I instantly started praying when I came out here. I was just praying for comfort. [I was] just thinking when the mom pulled up to see her house on fire, knowing that her child was in there. It’s just a sad, sad situation,’ Neighbor Latonya Park told WLTX.
‘I heard fire trucks coming, and I wanted to go check outside to see what happened. The first thing I saw was the house on fire; it was really bad,’ Neighbor Jazmin Verde said.
‘She does talk to them a lot. She said they are a nice family and they have nice kids,’ Verde continued.
The Winston Salem Fire Department following the tragedy reiterated the importance of taking proper fire safety precautions, especially with the presence of highly flammable items such as a Christmas tree.
