Presents saved, but family loses home in fire just before Christmas

Three generations of a Sampson County family were able to celebrate Christmas despite a devastating house fire on Friday.

Just three days before Christmas, an electrical fire ripped through the Godwin home of the Deaton family, leaving eight people without a place to stay.

Six people, four of them children, were in the home when the fire started in wall.

Samantha Lucas said a cousin, sleeping on the couch, first smelled smoke around dawn on Friday and alerted the others.

The adults got the kids to safety but were unable to save two family dogs.

"My husband kept trying to get the dogs out as much as he could, then he got out because he couldn’t breathe," Lucas said.

"Then we remembered the kids' presents, so he went back in the house while it was still on fire to try to get the kids’ Christmas gifts. He got the most that he could," she said.

The Red Cross, local church supporters and friends as far away as Oklahoma also stepped in to make sure that Christmas would still come for the family.

"It's just a lot of mixed emotions," Lucas said. "I'm stressed, worried about my kids, not having somewhere to go ... I’m glad we're all safe, and we were able to get out."

In addition to the gifts, Lucas said she was able to save some documents – birth certificates, memory books and Social Security cards.

But the structure of the home is gone.

"I was raised in that house, and then my kids were raised in that house," she said. "We have to replace everything. Everything is gone."

The family spent Christmas Day with grandparents and is in a hotel while they decide what to do next.

"It’s a constant question of what are we going to do?" Lucas said.