BACLIFF — What should have been a quiet ride home after Thanksgiving dinner turned into one of the worst moments of a Bacliff family’s life.

Around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Megan Drake, along with her husband and children, pulled up to their home on the 4400 block of 14th Street, with a plate of leftovers in the passenger seat. Before she could step out, she saw her father running toward her; trailer was on fire.

Drake and her relatives didn’t pause. With their children in the car, they rushed inside to reach the family’s pets — one dog and eight newborn puppies — but the flames met them.

“It was so thick, you couldn’t tell where you were,” Drake told KGTX 7. “We just kept hoping we could get to them.”

Fire crews from Bacliff Volunteer Fire Department arrived, soon joined by Kemah, San Leon and Dickinson. Working through the heat and smoke, firefighters managed to pull all nine animals out alive.

But when the flames died, the news everyone dreaded came: nothing inside the home could be saved.

Drake described sifting through the wreckage the next morning. Plastics had melted into unrecognizable shapes, furniture was reduced to frames, and familiar rooms had become charred outlines.

Drake says the timing makes the loss even harder. “All of this right before Christmas,” she said. “We just don’t know how to handle this.”

The family is now staying elsewhere as they work with their landlord on new housing arrangements.

“Their elves on a shelf left them a note.” Drake said. In addition, a photo drawn by the elves, with the message, “Don’t y’all worry; we’ll be back in a jiffy! Sorry about y’all’s house. We drew you a new one!”

Drake said she’s doing everything she can to keep the spirits of the children high.

For those interested in helping, a GoFundMe has been launched, as they try to rebuild, after losing everything but each other.