A Utah man was welding underneath his truck when a fire started and destroyed his home.

David Clay said he was working on his Toyota truck that he had spent more than 1,000 hours on when the fire sparked.

"I'm grateful at the time I was wearing a welding jacket, the gloves and everything because I think for awhile, I was actually in the flames," Clay said.

Clay had no injuries because he had on the proper safety gear. Officials advise people who are doing any type of hot work including welding, cutting or grinding, to have someone looking out for sparks and always have a safety plan in place.

"I think it just caused a spark and it lit the truck on fire that I was working on and it went really fast from there," Clay said.

He said within seconds, the garage was engulfed in flames.

"I ran and grabbed the garden hose and started spraying and started yelling to my wife and told her to get the kids out of the house," Clay explained.

David's wife Tia, who is 7 months pregnant, and their two boys ran to their neighbor's home.

"Our neighbor came pounding on the door and told us her home was on fire and we needed to get out," said Shauna Borrowman.

When Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue arrived, the blaze had already spread to two homes.

"We had two structures on fire when we pulled up on scene with our crews and with the manpower we had at first arrival, we had to choose and fortunately, we were able to take the structure with the least amount of damage, keep it from sustaining any more damage and turned out attention to the house where the fire began," said Chief Tom Kuhlmann of Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue.

"It was really a helpless feeling," Borrowman added.

Kuhlmann said 35 firefighters and 8 fire trucks from Hurricane Valley, Washington City and Hildale Fire fought the flames but the Clay's home was in a total loss. Everything from cars, a camper and all of their belongings are now gone.

"The total structure loss on this home in this incident was $210,000 for the initial house, $55,000 to the exposure to the north of the house and $10,000 the house on the south," Kuhlmann said.

The home was located near the Hurricane MIddle School and a construction site. Neither was affected by the fire. Witnesses who watched the flames rip through the home told ABC4's Tasmin Mahfuz what they saw.

"I heard a big explosion and then the orange flames started and it was just on from there like it was never going to stop," said Michael Harvick.

Clay said he's glad his family is safe.

Red Cross is helping the three homeowners and the Clay's family is now staying with their relatives.

Family and friends have set up a donation to start rebuilding their lives.

Source: www.good4utah.com