COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- What began as a nightmare quickly turned into reality for the Arguello family on Jan. 20.
“I just woke up because I was being burned alive in my sleep," said Phillip Arguello. "When I woke up, sure enough, there was smoke coming in.”
The family's home caught fire after a curtain fell on a space heater.
“You couldn’t see anything because it was just like a chalkboard black in front of you,” he said.
The Arguellos lost everything they owned, including three dogs, two cats and several reptiles.
“To hear them suffer in the way they did was really hard," said Christina Arguello. "In fact, it woke our neighbor up because he thought it was us screaming but it was our dogs.”
The home was in the Arguello family for generations. The family told Denver7 that they couldn't get insurance for the home because of its age.
But they do see a silver lining. Their son is safe, likely because he asked to sleep with his parents that night, instead of in his bedroom.
“I think the most important thing that we’ve seen is that this was a huge devastating loss, our family will never be the same," said Christina. "But we’ve had such support from people we didn’t even know. The support we’ve had from all across the board really takes the sting out of it a bit.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help the family.