BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Crystal and Eric Raya are picking up the pieces nearly two weeks after wildfires destroyed their home and everything inside.

The fire at 79 Moss Tree Road consumed the house in eight minutes. The property had been in Crystal’s family for decades before her father handed it over to her 28 years ago. She raised all three of her children there.

“It’s devastating to watch everything you’ve worked for just, in minutes disappear,” Crystal Raya said.

Irreplaceable losses

Crystal and Eric saved their dogs and cats, but their chickens did not survive. Everything inside the home was lost.

Eric’s grandfather had passed on a collection of beer steins. Crystal’s grandmother was an artist, and Crystal lost all of her pieces in the fire.

“Probably fifty paintings, she’s passed on so that was all I had left of her, so, yeah,” Crystal Raya said.

Crystal called her father to show him the state of the house. She said he is devastated.

“He said, I just remembered, I proposed to your mom in that house, so, um, that’s heartbreaking, you know, that’s a memory he had of that place and now it’s gone,” Crystal Raya said.

Community support and rebuilding

The Rayas said the community has come together to support them and other families impacted by the fires.

“Just help each other, the world is mean enough, so why shouldn’t moments like this bring people together,” Crystal Raya said.

The family plans to rebuild on the property.

“That’s home, it’s always going to be home, even with it gone it’s always going to be home,” Crystal Raya said.

“I have to pick up the pieces and I have to move on because if I feel it all at once I won’t be able to do that,” Crystal Raya said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to support the family.

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