A house fire that killed a 4-year-old Topeka boy was ignited when a child playing with a candle set a Christmas tree ablaze, investigators said.

“It was a live tree,” Topeka Fire Department Investigator Allan Stahl said Thursday. “It was a very rapid fire that ended in a horrific incident.”

The boy was identified as Davier Holmes.

The blaze broke out shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday at a home in a public housing district.

A woman and her three children were in the home when the fire began and spread quickly through a front living room area. The mother rescued two of the children before emergency crews arrived.

Firefighters searched through heavy smoke and heat to find Davier, who was taken to a Topeka hospital in critical condition and died of smoke inhalation.