PORT NECHES — The community has come together to help a family that lost their home in a New Year’s Eve fire.

The Priouxs of Port Neches, who have two young children, weren’t hurt but their home in the 2600 block of Merriman Street was a total loss after the blaze.

A gofundme account has been set up to help the family recover and Neches Brewing Co., 1108 Port Neches Ave., has been acting as a drop-off point for donations.

The business was overwhelmed with the amount of donations so they are now asking for monetary donations.

“We noticed a local family in Port Neches was greatly affected by a house fire,” Chelsea Fountain, marketing director for Neches Brewing Co., said. “The family started getting tons of donations so we had to change it up a bit.”

Cash donations will be accepted but if the giver does not feel comfortable with giving cash they can head to the gofundme page.

Fountain said any excess of other types of donations will be donated elsewhere.

“The response from the community has been crazy. I mean, on our (Facebook) page it’s been shared over 300 times,” she said. “It’s really awesome to see everyone come together. Most people don’t even know them (Prioux’s). It’s a tough situation. A terrible way to start off the year but it’s great we’ve been able to pull this together.”

Port Neches Fire Chief Paul Nelson said the house fire call came in around 7:20 p.m. Dec. 31. The residents were at home but no injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is likely linked to fireworks. After setting off fireworks the then extinguished items were allowed to sit five to 10 minutes then were placed in a paper bag and set down in the garage by the stairs. Nelson’s best guess is that the fire went up the steps and into the attic space.

By the time the fire department arrived the whole roof was on fire and the blaze had pushed into the attic space in the garage onward.

The family was able to salvage some items from their bottom floor but the house is considered a total loss.

Nederland and Groves fire departments assisted Port Neches when battling the blaze as per standard protocol.