Salina family devastated after losing home, belongings in electrical fire: 'Still holds the memories'

A Salina family is asking for help after they lost everything in an electrical house fire earlier this month.

They say they made it out with only the clothes on their back.

MEMORY LANE

Crystal Rutherford and her mother, Anna Parker, say the home holds decades of memories.

"My babies took their first steps, my dad took his last breath,” said Rutherford.

"We've lived here 22 years,” said Parker. “There were five grandbabies raised in this house. I've got 12, but five of them lived here with us, and their mom. We just lost everything."

Even though the house is gone, the memories will be in their hearts forever.

"The memories I have, they can't take,” said Rutherford. “There's some things that are irreplaceable, but I'll always have them. That's one thing about this place, is it still holds the memories."

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

Rutherford and Parker were at home when the fire started.

Parker’s teenage granddaughter was the one who noticed the flames.

"She got up to go get a drink, and I heard her screaming,” said Parker. “I was asleep on the couch. I heard her screaming, 'Nana, Nana, you and Mom get out, there's a fire, there's a fire."'

"She went in there to get a drink, and if she would have been five minutes later, I don't know that any of us would have made it out,” said Rutherford. “It was already to the entrance of our living room."

They feel grateful they had enough time to get out.

"I just praise God,” said Parker. “It was him, why I'm standing here talking today. It is all him. He gets all the glory for that. If he hadn't woke that little 14-year-old girl up, we probably wouldn't be standing here."

"God gets all the glory,” said Rutherford. “If it wouldn't have been for him, we probably wouldn't have made it out. Something had to get her up and make her thirsty. She hardly left her room once she went to bed. So, I just praise God for everything that went the way it did and got us out of there."

Rutherford hopes people see how fragile life can be and why it’s so important to take care of one another.

"Tomorrow's not promised,” said Rutherford. “Life is but a vapor; always hug somebody, don't be afraid to tell them that you love them because you might not get to see them again. This could have went a lot different, but thank God it didn't."

A NIGHTMARE

Rutherford and Parker say they have never seen anything like this fire.

"Just a mean, ugly thing coming,” said Parker. “I told her, Shyla, there's no saving it, we gotta go."

"It just looked like walls of rolling fire, it was like nothing I've ever seen,” said Rutherford.

PREVENTING FIRES

Parker hopes others will do what they can so they don’t have to go through this.

"Make sure you have smoke detectors because we didn't,” said Parker. “If you can afford it, have insurance, or this is where you end up. Most of all, check your stuff. Your appliances, make sure they're in good working order."

HELP POURING IN

It’s going to be a long road ahead, but they are thankful for everyone who is helping them.

"One thing about Salina, I know they will stand behind us and they will corral around us and they will make us better,” said Rutherford.

Parker says there are some ways you can help them.

"If anybody knows of a home, a trailer house, I've got a hook up over there for one, anything that's reasonable that I could afford,” said Parker. “Clothing, we still just have bare minimum of everything. Just whatever they want to help with, would be so much greatly appreciated."

TO HELP

The official GoFundMe for the family can be found here: https://gofund.me/757815b1

Parker also says donations can be made to her cash app $jiffychick.