Fort Worth apartment fire kills 1, critically injures another on Christmas Eve

FORT WORTH, Texas - A woman is dead after a Christmas Eve fire inside her Fort Worth apartment.

The Fort Worth Fire Department said the woman and a man were initially pulled from the burning complex on King George Drive Sunday around 8 p.m. 

They were taken to nearby hospitals where the woman later died. The man is in critical condition.

A firefighter also suffered a knee injury while battling the flames.

The fire damaged 16 apartments in total and left about 25 people homeless just hours before Christmas.

The Moreno family is one of the two displaced families with children. They told FOX 4 they would be staying in a motel.

The American Red Cross is helping their family and others with donations and gifts.

Montgomery Strategies, a Fort Worth company, donated $500 in gift cards to the two families with kids.

"As you can imagine, they just lost all their clothes and, and their toys," said Brian Murnahan with the American Red Cross North Texas. "That’s not a Christmas story that we want anybody to have."

Murnahan said the Red Cross wanted to make sure their Christmas Day was much better than their Christmas Eve.

"They need support," Murnahan said.

The Red Cross is always accepting donations to help families like these. 

This year, the organization has responded to nearly 900 disasters in North Texas. Most of them have been fires.

Members of the public can donate by visiting www.redcross.org/local/texas/north-texas.html.

Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fatal fire.

"Fire is under investigation right now. We're trying to determine whatever we can," said Kyle Clay with the Fort Worth Fire Department.

As part of a typical investigation, the fire is being looked into by the arson and bomb teams.