GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Flames burn through a family's home causing them to lose everything.
Robert Alexander at just 83 years old spent more than half of his life here. His children and grandchildren growing up here.
His son, Robert Alexander III says he heard kids out playing with fireworks just minutes before his niece runs to his room telling him the house was on fire.
The family thinks the fireworks caused the fire.
"My dad's home just blazing, smoke, damaged. He’s been here, he's been here before I was born, you know, I grew up here," said Alexander III. "This is my childhood home, we lost everything he worked for I'm sad for him. Sad there was nothing I can do to help put this out, you know help saved his home."
Robert Alexander III still can't believe his eyes. The only home he has ever known is gone. His father has lived more than 40 years of his adult life in this Gallatin home.
The family says it was last week when their world changed forever.
"It was a late, late Thursday night, I was sleeping and my niece, she, she knocked on my door to get me up and said, the house was on fire," he said.
Alexander says he thinks he knows what caused the home to go up in flames.
"Fireworks. I think this was kids, kids playing pranks, you know, not thinking, thinking OK yeah we're gonna shoot some fireworks at the house, you know, and get a good laugh out of it, but they don't realize that something like this is very serious," he said.
Alexander says he heard kids playing with fireworks days before and even the night of the fire.
"I was like wow, I was thinking to myself that’s pretty big fireworks; and then 15 minutes later that’s when my niece came and got me and said the house on fire," he said.
The home is a complete loss. Alexander says his dad's custom van, cars, clothes, pictures are all gone.
"It’s gone, everything I mean, everything is just memory now," he said.
It was a difficult fight for crews because the neighborhood doesn't have fire hydrants. The exact cause is still being investigated but this family says they're not giving up hope.
"We are going to rebuild, we’re going to rebuild, we’re gonna put it back just the way it was, it's gonna be bigger and better than it was before," he said.
So far hundreds of people have donated to a GoFundMe to help with expenses.
