The fire was put under control an hour after it set the home ablaze but destroyed everything in its path, according to reports.
A GoFundMe page created for the survivors of a fatal fire on Christmas Day in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, has been shut down by the organizer due to “rude” messages and fake pages, according to ABC 6.
The campaign was set up after a father and his two sons died in the Christmas Day blaze, according to reports.
Eric King, 40, and two of his sons Liam, 11, and Patrick, 8, were killed in the inferno that is still being investigated. Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree said early indications are that the fire started in the family's Christmas tree.
King's wife Kristin and the couple’s oldest son, Brady, 13, escaped the burning blaze before the fire destroyed their entire home at 1:30 Christmas morning, Yahoo! News reported.
In the wake of the fire, a GoFundMe page was created for the surviving King’s with over $600,000 raised but it is now shut down due to “fake” pages using the same photo of the family and rude comments made, according to a family friend who set up the account.
"Due to people creating fake Go Fund Me pages with the same picture and receiving some insensitive and extremely rude emails and comments, we have decided to stop accepting donations through Go Fund Me at this time. I have received some tasteless emails and threats and I am no longer comfortable having this open,” family friend Kristin Randazzo said in a statement.
“This was done for a family that has been personally a part of our life, supporting our business for years, and it was in my heart, the right thing to do,” she added.
A new fundraising campaign was set up via Give In Kind, according to Randazzo’s statement.
“On behalf of the King family, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have texted, emailed, messaged, called and donated. We have pulled together as a community and a nation - yes, this has reached a national level - to support an amazing family,” Randazzo wrote on GoFundMe.
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