Kayla Gray was driving back to Graham, North Carolina, in the middle of a thunderstorm Aug. 21 when she received a frantic call from her mom.

“We were creeping down the interstate, like five miles an hour, and she called me, and she's hysterical,” Gray said. “I'm like, ‘What's wrong?’ And she's like, ‘The house is on fire. The house is burning down.’”

Gray, a long-time resident of Graham, recalled the night on behalf of her parents, who were unavailable for comment. 

Twenty minutes before the call, Gray said her mother, Janet, was sitting in her kitchen when she heard a loud boom that sounded like a bomb. The whole room turned bright orange, and almost immediately she smelled smoke coming from the bedroom. 

By the time Janet made it to the door, the entire bedroom was engulfed in flames. A man driving by saw smoke coming from the home and Janet attempting to get off her porch. 

The man escorted her through the rain to a nearby police car, where she made the call to tell her daughter what happened. Kayla said that the man possibly saved her mom’s life. 

“My mom said there was a couple times she slipped because her hip’s really bad, and she doesn't walk well,” Kayla said. “If these guys weren't holding her up or helping her, then she would have never made it down the steps or away from the house in time.”

News of the house fire made it to social media, and Kayla said she was flooded with questions about where people could send donations. 

When Kayla’s coworker at E-Smoke Tobacco and Vape in Graham, manager Jamie Harn, heard about what happened, she was quick to allow Kayla to collect donations at the shop. Harn said the response from the community was overwhelming. 

“Not just our customers or people that know Kayla or myself or the people here, but just people from the community have really shown up, and I think that’s great,” Harn said. 

Kayla said virtually everything from inside the home was destroyed according to her parents, aside from a few antiques and some family photos. Her father’s favorite pants survived the fire, but even after several rounds in the washer, Kayla said she couldn’t get the smell of smoke out. 

“I have washed it three times and put 20 dryer sheets in it, and the smoke is just still like it was just in there,” Kayla said. 

She added that her parents’ biggest goal right now is finding a place to rent while they temporarily stay with relatives in the area.