Family lost everything in fire but hope

DRIPPINGS SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) - A Dripping Springs family is piecing their lives back together after their home caught fire Friday.

The Solis family, parents Conrad and Angela are starting over with their two children, 18-year-old Miranda and 19-year-old Liana. Getting along without the three family pets will be difficult; they were lost in the fire.

"We had four animals inside the house and knew it was not likely that they escaped," Angela said.

One family pet made it out alive, the Shetland Sheep dog, which was found with first-degree burns a distance from the house, with burned patches of fur.

"Our little Shetland Sheep Dog was found half a mile away at our neighbor, burnt," said Angela. The dog is expected to survive.

The family was in Austin enjoying a night on the town when they received a call that their home was on fire. When they arrived, the devastation was evident. They had lost everything.

"We had been sitting down and just ordered our drinks and then we were overwhelmed with phone calls from friends," said Liana. "Horror and surprise and shock," Angela said.

But in the midst of tragedy Angela has hope. "We're so blessed that we all have each other and none of our family was lost."

Dripping Springs United Methodist Church is helping the family who has been attending the facility for 25-years, get back on their feet. The church is accepting donations and collecting them for the Solis family.

"This church family has been incredible to us. They've fed us every meal since the fire," Angela said.

Both girls wear size-five shirts and size-seven pants. Their mother, Angela, wears size-small shirts and size-seven pants. Conrad wears XL shirts, has a size 38-inch waist and 32-length pants.

The family home was insured but it will take a while before the adjusters can clear the money for them to replace everything they owned. Angela said after the Bastrop fires the family inventoried their belongings and decided to make necessary adjustments to their home-owners insurance policy.

"The saying you don't know what you have until its gone comes into play here. We had always seen things like this happen but never imagined it would happen to us," said Liana.

Angela says they lost passports, clothes, family photos, even the college acceptance letter Liana had was turned to ash.

When you look at the house now, there are part of two small walls standing. Everything else is a three-foot deep pile of blackened ash," said Angela. "Nothing whole in the rubble at all... just ash."

Associate Pastor Adam Thornton is helping to coordinate donations, which are being accepted at Dripping Springs United Methodist Church.

"This could have happened to anyone. Thank the lord they had gone into town earlier in the day," said Thornton.

Dripping Springs United Methodist Church is located at 28900 Ranch Road 12 . Their phone number is 512-894-7123.