HOMEDALE -- A fire in Homedale wiped out two homes on Thanksgiving night.
While firefighters investigate the cause, the families work on rebuilding what was lost.
A husband and wife lived in the home where the flames began. Nine people lived in the house next door, which the fire also consumed.
It was that large family that returned to their burnt home to reclaim whatever the flames didn't turn into ash.
"I regret this, but I'm not really going to lose sleep all over it," said Dennis Davis, whose home was destroyed in the fire. "We'll just start over and whatever it takes."
Davis and his family sorted through the rubble that was once their home of 11 years.
They'll salvage anything they can find, especially family pictures and jewelry.
"As long as my family is safe and we're together everything's good," said Davis.
The family was on its way out for a Thanksgiving feast, when Davis saw trouble next door.
"The neighbor's house was smoking and we went over," said Davis. "I thought they were in there. I broke the door in."
No one was home, but the flames found an escape through a window and jumped the small distance between the two houses.
"I just watched it," said Davis. "It was slow at first, but it was kind of an inevitable creep."
"There wasn't much we could do once it hit our house," said Victoria Stephens said, whose residence was also destroyed.
Davis' son and his son's fiancee, Victoria Stephens, lived in a rear apartment attached to the house.
She's due to give birth to their son in two weeks.
Their place is gone, and so is their baby's nursery.
"It's hard, it's just, it's really hard," said Stephens. "Thanksgiving, you know it's supposed to be a day of thanks and I'm very thankful that we all got out okay."
No one was injured but the house is a total loss.
A Thanksgiving turkey still in the oven, and children's toys all over - these are just some of the traces of this family's life found among the wreckage.
Davis does not blame his neighbors for the fire that burned his home.
"They're really good people, hard working people," he said. "It's a terrible loss for them. They actually always thought my house was going to burn theirs down."
The Red Cross tells us insurance is helping the couple who lived in the home where the fire began.
Dennis Davis's home was not insured.
He says people have been kind. They've donated clothes and money to help his family get back on its feet.
The Red Cross is providing the family's meals.
More than 20 firefighters from the volunteer departments in Homedale and Wilder were on scene for nine hours.
Homedale Fire donated $200 to each family from a fund for emergencies like this.
