Calif. Man Recovers Engagement Ring amid the Rubble of His Burned Down Home and Immediately Proposes to Girlfriend

Mar. 15, 2025

Brian McShea and Stephanie Raynor.Photo:Gofundme

Gofundme

A couple had a surprise engagement after losing their house inthe Los Angeles fires.

They evacuated their home of one year on Jan. 7, the first day of the ongoing wildfires, according toABC7.

AGoFundMecreated for the couple explained that McShea was out of town when Raynor “needed to immediately evacuate with their pets in the middle of the night.” Therefore, she wasn’t able to “save nearly any of their belongings.”

Reality set in when the pair later returned to their home and took in the rubble.

Unbeknownst to Raynor, her partner had been planning to propose to her and had purchased an engagement ring that was being kept in a desk drawer.

“I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe the stone can survive and maybe we’ll find the little stone.’ I thought the ring was going to completely disintegrate [in the fire],” McShea told ABC7.

However, that did not keep him from searching when they returned to their property.

“I was like, ‘We’re going to look over here where my desk is,’ " McShea recalled. “I did not tell her why. I don’t know what [she] thought we were looking for because it was pretty obvious that a lot of my stuff was gone.”

He continued, “So we’re digging around where my desk is … again, just looking for a stone. I really didn’t have a lot of hope, but you just brush away some rubble and there’s a little ring, and you pick that up and it’s actually a washer to something, and that happened like four times, and then you pick it up, and there’s a little diamond.”

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With the recovered ring in hand, McShea promptly popped the question amid the rubble and Raynor said “yes” through tears.

The couple shared their happy news with a joint post on theirInstagramwhich includes two photos of the emotional moment, the first of which shows them in protection gear with their arms wrapped around each other while Raynor flashes her ring on her gloved hand.

According to ABC7, they do not have a wedding date yet but want to remain in Altadena.

More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed in the fires, per theAssociated Press.

source: people.com