A family on the Navajo Nation is looking to rebuild after a fire destroyed the home that’s been with them for generations.

The roof caught fire last week, and high winds took the house in just a matter of minutes.

Mary Yazzie, 87, had the house in Cameron all her life, built by her father. The Navajo community is about an hour north of Flagstaff.

The house sits on a generational compound with other family members’ homes close by, and that may have saved her life. Mary’s daughter, LaKaren Bighorse, who lives next door, saw the flames and smoke from the roof.

LaKaren says when she saw the flames, she ran over and told her mom to get out. She says the winds that day were upwards of 50 mph.

“I crawled on top of my mom’s house and I tried to put the fire out myself. But the wind was no help. You know, when I would try to spray the hose, I was the one that was getting wet,” she said.

She also tried to spray water inside the home, attempting to extinguish the flames.

“I started panicking and I was running towards the door because the smoke was so bad and I tripped over my mom’s bed. And so, I then got up and I ran out and by then I looked at the house, and it was already...it was really bad,” she said.

LaKaren says it took about 45 minutes for fire crews to arrive. By the time they got there, everything was gone — clothes, family heirlooms, jewelry.

A local trading post has set her mom up in a motel for the next two weeks while they try to clean up and figure out what’s next.

LaKaren says the home is very special to her mom, and they are hoping to rebuild it. She says the community has already stepped up in such a big way with donations. Right now, they have a GoFundMe set up to help with other costs, including rebuilding the home.