Leandrea and John Hernández started gathering gifts in October. After years of small Christmases on tight budgets, the Zion couple wanted to ensure that everyone — from their four kids to extended family — would be tearing open wrapping paper on Christmas.
That moment never came.
On Christmas Eve, a fire destroyed the Hernández family’s north suburban home of the past six years. They lost everything, gifts and all, leaving the family of eight to figure out what’s next while they wade through their grief.
It’s been unimaginable and overwhelming, they say.
But they’ve been getting by with the community’s help thanks to an outpouring of support for the family, with loved ones and neighbors and even strangers donating what they can to alleviate the loss.
“We were broken,” said Leandrea Hernández, 36. “We still are broken. … But then I get online at 2, 3, 4 o’clock in the morning when I can’t sleep, and people are still donating, sharing our GoFundMe, sending meals. Telling me, ‘What else can we do? What else do you need?’”
Marcial Rodríguez, CEO of 911 Fire Board-Up and Construction, walks in front of Leandrea and John Hernández’s home that caught fire on Christmas Eve in the 3100 block of Ezekiel Avenue in Zion, Dec. 26, 2025. All eight people and their pets made it out of the house alive. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Before the blaze broke out, Leandrea Hernández was busy preparing a few dishes for Christmas dinner, which they’d planned to host, she recalled days later in an interview with the Tribune. As she spoke, she and her family huddled together in the lobby of a local hotel, the Inn on Sheridan, where they’ve been living since the fire.
When she finished cooking, Leandrea Hernández walked through the house to make sure doors were locked and lights were off. About 10 minutes later, she began smelling what she thought was a lit candle, she remembered. At first, she didn’t think much of it — she fashions candles as a hobby and the kids make use of them now and again.
Then her 11-year-old daughter, Lihanna, took notice, too, running downstairs to see what was going on. She found the door handle to their sunroom hot to the touch and black smoke seeping out.
“She’s yelling down to us, ‘Mommy! Daddy! Come down, come down,’” Leandrea Hernández said.
Alongside the couple and their four kids, who range in age from 2 to 18, Leandrea Hernández’s brother and mother also lived with them. All but her mother, who was at work, were home when the fire erupted.
Initially, Leandrea Hernández thought the house was salvageable, recalling that she turned to her husband and said, “‘Let’s grab buckets, let’s get whatever we can.’”
He told her it was time to get out.
“At this point (I’m thinking), ‘No, I don’t want to leave. I don’t want,’” her voice breaking, “‘to watch my house burn.’”
Joshua Rodríguez, with 911 Fire Board-Up and Construction, walks around the burned home of Leandrea and John Hernández in the 3100 block of Ezekiel Avenue in Zion, Dec. 26, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Timothy Moore, with 911 Fire Board-Up and Construction, boards up a window on the second floor of Leandrea and John Hernández’s home on Dec. 26, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Leandrea and John Hernández’s home in the 3100 block of Ezekiel Avenue in Zion, seen here on Dec. 26, 2025, caught fire on Christmas Eve. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Leandrea and John Hernández’s home, seen here on Dec. 26, in the 3100 block of Ezekiel Avenue, caught fire on Christmas Eve, leaving the family of eight homeless. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
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Joshua Rodríguez, with 911 Fire Board-Up and Construction, walks around the burned home of Leandrea and John Hernández in the 3100 block of Ezekiel Avenue in Zion, Dec. 26, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
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Within a matter of minutes after everyone was out, the entire facade of their house had gone up in flames.
Fire crews responded just after 8 p.m., according to the Zion Fire & Rescue Department. The home was empty by the time fire crews arrived, but heavy fire and smoke billowed out, fire officials said.
It took firefighters three hours to control and extinguish the blaze, which investigators on the scene deemed an accident.
The fire, which began on the front porch, left the home uninhabitable, Zion Fire Chief Justin Stried said Monday. Investigators could not rule out discarded smoking materials as the most likely cause of the fire.
Having met as kids while growing up on Chicago’s West Side, the family moved into their Zion home in 2019. Though suburban residents, John Hernández works for the city of Chicago, while Leandrea Hernández had worked in waste management from home. Her work is in limbo, with everything burned in the fire, she said.
The couple moved out of the city for a better life for their kids. Before Zion, they lived in low-income housing in North Chicago, but eventually decided it was time to acquire their own home. They only saw their Zion house twice before they knew it was the one, roomy enough to hold their whole family.
Since coming to Zion, Christmases have been quieter affairs with money tight, Leandrea Hernández said. But this year, they had aspirations to pull out all the stops: games, music, gifts for everyone, having planned the celebration weeks in advance.
“This Christmas, I think, was (supposed to be) kind of like the best Christmas” that they’ve ever had, said her mother, Katrina Smith.
Katrina Smith, from left, sits with her daughter, Leandrea Hernández, center, and Hernández’ son Aiden Hernández, 13, as they talk about the Christmas Eve fire that destroyed their home in Zion, Dec. 27, 2025. (Michael Schmidt/for the Chicago Tribune)
Smith couldn’t believe it when she rushed home from work to see the house bright with fire. The moment brought the 54-year-old back to the same day decades ago, when she was little and her own house burned down in a Christmas Eve fire, Smith recalled.
“I was like, ‘This has got to be a dream, it’s gotta be a dream,’” she said.
After escaping the blaze, the family stood barefoot outside, watching their home be destroyed.
It didn’t take long for the neighborhood to take notice. Their next-door neighbor let them wait inside his house until they had a place to go while word of the fire, and the family’s loss, spread.
Within hours, the family went from having nothing to having clothes, toiletries, food deliveries and gift cards flooding their way.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundMe page the family started had amassed just over $9,000. On Facebook, messages and offers to help have mounted.
“Thinking of you this morning,” one Facebook user wrote to the family on Christmas Day. “We want to help fill any gaps.”
“I’m glad you got out safely,” another person wrote. “Please, what do you need?”
John Hernández, left, holds his daughter, Luna, 2, as Hernández and E.J. López, right, talk about the fire that destroyed their home in Zion, Dec. 27, 2025. (Michael Schmidt/for the Chicago Tribune)
On Saturday morning, Tiffany Dean strolled into the Inn on Sheridan and placed a black duffle on the reception desk: to donate, she’d said. Since Leandrea Hernández and her family temporarily moved in, the hotel has been accepting donations on their behalf.
Dean, 45, was shocked when she read about the devastating fire. She brought the family clothes, she said, and hopes to donate more.
Asked what the support has meant to her, Hernández said, “I don’t have the words.”
On Dec. 26, Christmas came late. While donations filled the family’s hotel rooms, loved ones flocked to the inn, presents in hand. That night, without a home but surrounded by warmth, they celebrated.
“It was like we were having our Christmas dinner,” Leandrea Hernández said, “but in the hotel room.”
tkenny@chicagotribune.co
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