Steven Weatherford was sleeping in the living room of his childhood home in Oakland, Calif., on Christmas morning when his younger brother, Jerry, woke up next to him around 6:30 a.m. and saw smoke coming out from underneath the television.
Moments later, Jerry Weatherford said, the entire wall was on fire and smoke began to fill the house.
Jerry, who was coughing and struggling to breathe, ran out the back door, screaming for the others to get out of the house. Instead of leaving with his brother, Steven ran upstairs to wake his aunts and father.
One aunt ran out the back door, and another aunt crawled out from under the smoke, Jerry said. His father tried to get down the stairs before escaping through a bedroom window.
Steven never emerged.
“I kept screaming for my brother to come out, and he just didn’t come out,” Jerry said. He said he believed that his brother had fallen down the stairs trying to escape.
The authorities later told the family that Steven died of smoke inhalation. The Oakland Fire Department said on Sunday that it was investigating the cause of the fire.
“He was a hero,” Jerry said. “He saved their lives.”
Hours before the fire, Jerry said, the family celebrated Christmas together. Most of the family went to sleep around 3 a.m., he said, and “three hours later he was gone.”
The night before the fire, Steven had exchanged gifts with his girlfriend, LaShante Mayo, who told KGO-TV that “he was truly the best person you could ever meet.”
“He died trying to get them out of the house,” she said. “And he succeeded!”
“I loved him so much.”
Before the fire, Steven bought an engagement ring for Ms. Mayo and kept it in his home in Antioch, Calif., Jerry said. He was planning to propose on New Year’s Eve.
Every year, Steven, Jerry and their parents would gather for Christmas in the family home in Oakland. Five years ago, the brothers lost their mother, Cynthia, but kept up the family’s traditions with their father. After their mother’s death, Steven tended to their grieving father, Jerry said.
Steven worked at a patient care center but always wanted to be a published author, Jerry said. Steven wrote a novel over the course of several years called “Edge of Justice.”
On Dec. 21, Jerry said, he went with his brother on their annual outing to buy Christmas gifts in San Francisco. They visited Macy’s and admired the lights in the city, as they did every year.
“I’ll always hold that memory because it was our last time out together, just me and him,” Jerry said. “I never would have dreamed it would be the last time.”
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