PAWHUSKA, Okla. — The house that Larry McBride spent 40 years building and raising a family in, is now in ashes.
"He literally built this house frame by frame, brick by brick. We just finished siding the house, he just re-roofed it last year," his wife Gwen McBride said.
It started as a two-bedroom home that McBride expanded when he had the money and time.
"Now I begin to wonder after I saw it go down if I'd wasted part of my life building the house... if I should have been doing something else," he said.
The family didn't even have time to grab car keys, and they lost just about everything. But they're relieved that everyone, including their pets, got out alive.
"It just started smoking and we tried to get back to see what was happening, my son and I, and we couldn't get through the smoke. We'd get partway through the smoke and then we'd have to go back for air," Larry McBride said.
The fire started Sunday afternoon. The family is still waiting for it to go out before the fire marshal can determine a cause.
In the meantime, the McBrides are holding on to memories.
"I can still see remnants of things. Our daughter's baby swing... you can see the frame in the basement, our son's wagon in the garage," Gwen McBride said.
McBride is considering rebuilding, this time with some help.
"I don't know if he could do it all over again by himself but I think with everybody helping out I think we can make it work, make it happen," his daughter Jessica Adams said.
There is a GoFundMe for the family. For more information, click here.
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