Philadelphia family's home unexpectedly bursts into flames on Christmas Eve

PHILADELPHIA - Just days ago, FOX 29 was at the Sellecchia household in Northeast Philadelphia to showcase their holiday spirit as part of Bob Kelly’s "A Very Kelly Christmas" segment.

But now, the side exterior is charred and an "unsafe structure notice" is on the window — this after a Christmas Eve fire.

"I was devastated to see my house go up in flames," said homeowner Judy Sellecchia. "That’s something that you just can never get out of your mind. You can’t, you can’t."

What we know:

Sellecchia said the fire originated in the kitchen, but they still don’t know how, since they said the oven wasn’t on. Judy was at work down the street, while her husband was the only one home.

There was no loss of human life, but the homeowners did lose one of their two cats. Judy's thankful it didn’t transpire during the overnight hours.

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"It started in the back of the house, and that’s where we sleep in the back," she said. "So it could’ve been way worse."

Husband Freddy said he heard three bangs prior to the fire.

"I burned my hand, burned both my ears, my face," said homeowner Freddy Sellecchia. "It just didn’t want to go out."

Daughter Jennifer Terpoilli lives down the block and says a good 10 minutes had gone by before anyone got through to the emergency line.

"If they would’ve answered the first 15 times I called or however many times everybody else called, it probably wouldn’t have spread that far," said Terpoilli.

Once emergency crews got to the scene, Judy described them as "excellent."

Terpoilli reached out to Sen. Joe Picozzi over the situation and hopes to hear back.

"Just said like, you know, point me in the direction I need to go to figure out why this is happening," said Terpoilli. "I mean, somebody could’ve died."

What you can do:

The homeowners have been told they can return in six to nine months, but in the meantime, their daughter has set up a GoFundMe. The link to help out can be found here. 

What's next:

"I’m coming back to this house, I’m coming back. I’m going to rebuild, yes I am. I’m not leaving," said Judy.

Officer Tanya Little with the Philadelphia Police Department Office of Public Affairs told FOX 29 that the department "[takes] concerns about emergency response very seriously and will look into this matter."