Lehigh family loses home in Christmas Day fire and community rallies to help

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — It was a regular Christmas morning for the Elrod family. They opened gifts and went to Christmas brunch at grandma's house. But Justin wasn't feeling well and wanted to go home to rest before their evening plans.

What they didn't expect was to come home to firefighters surrounding their house.

Click here to see Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Victoria Quevedo speak with the Elrod family:

"As we were coming off of 23rd Street on the Sunshine, we see the ambulance and the fire trucks and lights and sirens, and we look over and we see the smoke just pouring out," said Brittany Elrod.

His wife, Brittany, said she tried to check their home security cameras.

"All of our cameras said offline. I knew instantly it was our home," Brittany said.

Firefighters were already at the house when they got there.

"The world literally stopped. They say time don't stop. It stopped right there," said Justin Elrod.

What didn't stop was Brittany's gut reaction to jump into danger to save their animals.

"I busted the window. I jumped through. He jumped through. We got three of the four dogs out," Brittany said.

But they couldn't save Swirl.

They also lost nearly everything inside their home of 12 years, including all the Christmas presents for their three kids, like 11-year-old Jordin.

On Monday, he walked into the home for the first time since the fire.

"I'm just upset that my all my stuff is gone and the house is burned and the dog is gone," Jordin said.

"His room kind of took it the hardest, between our room and his room," Brittany said.

All of his Christmas gifts were on his bed when the fire hit. Now, all that's left is a Miami Dolphins poster and a hat.

But from the loss came community support.

"I have never, ever... I mean, I've had people that I haven't talked to in 10 years that have reached out as far as donations," Brittany said.

The family is now staying with a family member while they rebuild their lives.

"He says I'm his hero, but he's really my hero," Brittany said.

If you want to help them recover, click here.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.