Autistic boy Brandon Gonzales, 13, accidentally kills himself after getting hold of lighter and setting his family's Christmas tree on fire

A 13-year-old autistic boy tragically died after he got hold of a lighter and set fire to the Christmas tree at his family's North Carolina home. 

Brenda Contreras Juarez, 30, has been left heartbroken following her son Brandon's death on Tuesday.

A caregiver was looking after the teenager, who lived with autism, and a five-year-old girl at the time of the disaster at 6:30 pm, myfox8 reported.

Family members said he somehow got his hands on a lighter and set their family Christmas tree ablaze, causing a fire to quickly spread through the house.

The caregiver and little girl managed to escape the catastrophe - but Brandon got stuck in the flames and, despite rescue efforts from his caregiver, died in the fire.

His caregiver suffered minor injuries from her efforts to save Brandon's life - she is now recovering in hospital. 

The family lost everything in the fire - but the most devastating loss of all was of Brandon, the oldest of his siblings.

'It's been three days of tortures … I miss him so much, and I am dying of sadness,' his grief-stricken mother said.

'We lost all the material things … The most difficult thing is that we can't recover what hurts us the most,' Brenda's aunt Noelia Juarez added. 

The house where Brenda lived alone with her three children, located on Fanning Pointe Lane, was completely destroyed by the fire.

Family members set up a GoFundMe page to collect money to help with funeral costs - it has raised $5,255 so far.

'On behalf of Family Contreras Juarez, we are making this page to whomever would like to kindly donate in memory of Brandon Gonzalez, since he lost his life in a house fire,' Noelia Juarez wrote on the page.

'They lost everything, their home, and 13- year-old Brandon's life. We ask for your help for what you can for funeral costs and to build a new home.'

Juarez said 'he always made me happy with his smile. He was my world.'

It was especially heartbreaking for the family to lose the young boy during the Holiday season, just weeks before Brandon's birthday. 

Neighbors of the family witnessed the disaster and reported that it was the caregiver was a grandmother and it was her and her grandchild that managed to escape the fire. 

'It makes me very very sad. I instantly started praying when I came out here. I was just praying for comfort. [I was] just thinking when the mom pulled up to see her house on fire, knowing that her child was in there. It's just a sad, sad situation,' Neighbor Latonya Park told WLTX.

'I heard fire trucks coming, and I wanted to go check outside to see what happened. The first thing I saw was the house on fire; it was really bad,' Neighbor Jazmin Verde said.

'She does talk to them a lot. She said they are a nice family and they have nice kids,' Verde continued.