Father & son homeless for the holidays

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A late night house fire leaves an Austin family homeless for the holidays. The Northwest Austin home on the 11000 block of Heathrow Drive went up in flames around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

The single dad and his 10-year-old son came back from dinner and holiday shopping to find their house on fire.

Once they opened the garage and front door, they only had seconds before flames started shooting towards them.

"You saw the fire," said Isaac Kattan, Neighbor. "You saw smoke in the garage."

The family had only lived in the house a few months, but got to know their neighbors in this close community. Many neighbors offered to help the family in any way they could.

"It was bad, and he's a kid," said Kattan. "He was crying. And it is Christmas after all."

The father spoke to us off camera and said he's not sure what he's going to do. But Christmas day, his son will have presents to open.

"Luckily, they didn't have any Christmas stuff here," said Lt. Michael Crabill, Austin Firefighter.  "In fact, they were doing their Christmas shopping and most of the presents were at his office."

Investigators spent hours on the scene, trying to figure out how this fire started.

"I don't get emotionally involved," said Crabill. "We've got to detach ourselves from this or it would drive us crazy."

The devastating house fire caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. But this holiday season, the father is just thankful he and his son are alive.