A St. Petersburg family lost nearly all of its belongings, after an electrical fire ripped through their rental home last Tuesday.

“It’s like a nightmare, I want to say,” said Christopher Smith. “It’s kind of unbelievable. I’m still in complete shock with it.”

Smith was home at the time and said he tried to put the fire out with an extinguisher, but it wouldn’t work. He said the smoke detectors inside the home weren’t working properly, either.

“That’s when I immediately panicked,” Smith said.  “I tried to just get up out of there because I didn’t know what to do from there.”

Once outside, Smith called 911. Meanwhile, his fiancé was grocery shopping with the couple’s five-month-old son and 2-year-old daughter. Nicole Lyle said she heard her address go out over a firefighter’s two-way radio, who just happened to pass by her in the store.

She rushed home, only to have her worst fears confirmed.

“I knew everything was gone,” Lyle said.

The family was able to salvage some of their belongings and placed them inside the home’s screened in porch. The American Red Cross arranged for them to stay at a nearby hotel for several days and when they came back to check on the home, they found most of their things were stolen.

“It really just hurt,” Smith said. “It really made me think that people just don’t really care.”

Getting back on their feet will be a struggle. Lyle, who has Lupus, is a stay-at-home mom. Smith, who worked for more than a decade in the healthcare industry, is currently in between jobs.

If you would like to help out, a GoFundMe page has been set up at http://www.gofundme.com/RAHJ9C.