It’s been three days since John Stanley's family was caught in a devastating fire at their Tay Township home.

Fighting back tears outside of Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, Stanley prayed for his wife, three sons and father.

“I keep asking myself why and how,” he says. Stanley wasn’t home at the time of the fire.

His family remains in critical condition. At least three people need help breathing.

The fire broke out near a Christmas tree in the Nielsen Road home on Monday, at around 11 p.m.

“The Christmas tree was supposed to be taken down the day before and we kept it a couple of extra days because the kids liked to look at the lights, but we should’ve taken in down the day before.”

Witnesses say Stanley’s oldest son Connor saved his younger brother Carson.

“He ran through the fire to find his brother, and found his brother and brought his brother back through the fire, I think saving his brother's life,” Stanley says.

Still inside the home were Stanley’s wife Teri and youngest son Cormac. He says Connor and his grandfather tried to save them.

“The heat and the fire pushed him back even more and as he was coming out, the firemen were running in. The firemen did a great job of going and saving the lives of my wife and my young son, Cormac.”

His wife was found unconscious. Her body was badly burned from shielding her eight year old son from the flames.

“I'm praying for them and I would just ask everybody else to pray and remember them in their prayers.”

Stanley is hopeful his entire family can pull through and has all the confidence in the world in the doctors and nurses.