The holidays should be a time for happiness and spending time with family. But one family is in mourning. In a moment of chaos, one California man showed how much he cared for his family. He valiantly laid down his life to save them when their house caught fire.
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Tragically, his death came just days before he planned to propose to his girlfriend. Steven Weatherford was excited to get hitched. He was planning to pop the big question on New Year's Eve. But before that, he was spending time with his family.
Sadly, that's when tragedy happened. Weatherford was sleeping on his couch at his parents' home when it caught fire. Awakening to the smell of smoke and the fire spreading, he thought of his family.
Fire Kills California Man
He quickly ran to wake the rest of his family and try to get them out of the house. Sadly, he ended up dying while trying to save them. Speaking with ABC, Weatherford's aunt Eunice Smith remembered him as a hero. She said he died "trying to save everybody, make sure everybody was out of the house."
"He was a good person. He was a good family man. He saved his family. He saved four people in that house. He woke them up and he saved them and he went back - I guess because he wasn't sure that everybody was out of the house. He was a hero," she said.
Meanwhile, Weatherford's girlfriend said that she was inconsolable following his death. She said that she learned that he planned to propose to her. He had shown his family the ring before the house fire.
"He didn't get a chance to give it to her. But it is in the house, and we are going to find it," she said.
Meanwhile, the family set up a GoFundMe to help pay for expenses after his death. It comes just a few years after Weatherford's father also lost his wife.
"Now, he faces the unbearable grief of losing one of his sons in such a sudden and tragic way," it read.
What exactly caused the fire remained a mystery. But it's clear that smoke inhalation likely caused the death of the California man. First responders found his body upon arrival. A spokesperson with the fire department said he was "overcome and likely disoriented by the smoke."
He was "ultimately found unconscious inside while crews were continuing to search the house."
