PALM COAST, Fla. — A house was destroyed by a fire, and a Florida family said a Christmas present was to blame.
The Palm Coast family said a hoverboard exploded and started the blaze.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom. Just blowing up. All I can do is grab my daughter, grabbed everyone and try and get out," victim Melissa Bodiford said.
Bodiford, her daughter, niece and her 11-year-old son Brodie are lucky to be alive after their Palm Coast home on Buttonbush Lane went up in flames.
"I had to open the back-patio door and lower everyone out. I busted through the back-patio door," victim Brodie Hamilton said.
Hamilton's mother said the cause of the fire was a hoverboard that Brodie got for Christmas.
Palm Coast Fire Chief Jerry Forte said the fire was intense.
The family said the decision to watch a popular new movie might have actually saved their lives.
"Shout out to Bird Box, if it wasn't for everyone talking about that movie, for me to watch it and for all of us who sat in the front room, I would not have my son, my daughter, or my niece," Bodiford said.
"The center of the fire was right near the mattress and by the mattress was the hoverboard and other toys and things on the floor," Forte said.
Crews were able to find one wheel of the hoverboard, but everything else seemed to be destroyed.
Forte said the family used a hose and tried to put out the fire.
The community is accepting donations for the family.
Donations are being collected by the Fairfeld Inn and Suites by Marriott on Old Kings Road in Palm Coast and people can drop them off anytime.
Courtesy WESH via CNN Newsource