IRMO, S.C. — Larkin Newberry was still in shock as she and her partner, Jesse Matthews, sifted through the remnants of their home, destroyed by fire just six days earlier.
In what used to be their living room, Newberry spotted a concrete mold of their hands intertwined with their 11-year-old daughter Cece's, covered in soot.
"Don't break it!" she said to Matthews as he reached for the fragile keepsake. "That's Cece, and I think that's me, and Jesse was on the outside," she said, her voice tinged with devastation and relief.
The couple had taken Cece to a friend’s house in Charleston the night of the fire. While there, Newberry received an alert on her Ring doorbell app. Usually, she would ignore it, but this time, she saw a neighbor at their door, clearly distressed.
"I looked at it, and I didn't really look at him. I said, 'No, this guy looks really panicked, like he was running back and forth.' And so I answered it," Newberry recalled. "He just said, 'There's smoke coming out of your house. I'm calling 911.'"
Minutes later, as flames rose within their home, Alisha Gran and her husband drove by and noticed the smoke. However, no fire trucks or law enforcement were present. Gran urged her husband to stop, jumped out of the car, and rushed to help.
"When I got up to the gate, I noticed it was open, and there was a man there who had managed to get the door open," Gran said. "He said something about the lady being on the Ring and about there being pets in the house."
Gran ran into the thick smoke several times, trying to locate Newberry and Matthews' two dogs and cat, but she could not save them.
"It meant so much to us that they were trying, you know, because we feel so powerless, being so far away and just watching all of this unfold," Newberry said.
Feeling grateful and powerless, Newberry took to Facebook to thank the neighbors who had tried to help. Gran saw the post, and the two women met for the first time as cameras rolled, sharing hugs filled with emotion.
"I feel a lot of sadness for them and I want to help them in any way," Gran said. "I feel like I've possibly made a new friend," she said with a slight grin.
Newberry said that despite losing their home, this experience was a powerful reminder of human kindness.
"Life does suck. We go through so much. You know, we have both experienced massive loss in our lives, and I think people need reminders that there are people who will stop—having no idea what they’re running into—to try and save someone’s pets," Newberry said with deep gratitude. "There are good people out there."