HENRYETTA, Okla. — A Henryetta, Oklahoma couple is picking up the pieces after officials say a firework shot through their living room window.
"My landlord had called, and I thought it was just her saying happy birthday because it was my birthday, so I answered," Ryan Vincent said. "The first thing she said was, 'Are you okay?' and I said 'yeah'. She said 'Are you home?' and I said 'No'. She says 'Okay, well, your trailer's on fire.'"
As neighbors of Vincent and Chelsea Sams celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks, one accident, changed their lives.
As the couple cleans up, they're urging others to take caution when using fireworks. They hope no one has to deal with the same tragedy.
"Educate yourself," Vincent said. "If you have kids out there doing it, supervise them. If you're blowing mortars off and stuff like that make sure the tubes don't tip over because when it does, this is what happens.
Their living room is now unrecognizable.
All of their belongings are gone. And the fire happened just two weeks before the biggest day of their lives.
"We're engaged to be married on July 21," Sams said.
The couple moved into the home one year ago today. They wanted it to be the place where they started their family. But tonight, their family is broken.
"By the time we got here it was… we were too late,"Sams said. "My dogs were inside, I needed to go in there and get them out. I was told, 'no you can't go in there it's not safe.' And that's when the chief told me none of them made it."
The couple's four dogs, three of them under a year old, died in the fire.
"This is the first time we've ever left them all at home by themselves," she said. "We didn't think anything about it. I mean, when you go out, you don't think about your house catching fire every time you leave."
As they sort through what's left of their home, which they've called a total loss, Vincent and Sams are staying strong by focusing on moving forward.
“I know we can fight through it and pull together," Vincent said. "We have a wedding in two weeks, that's the only thing that's going to come well out of this, but we're going to fight through it and we're going to go."
Unfortunately, they did not have insurance and they are now living with family.
If you would like to help out the family, a GoFundMe page has been setup.
