John Beale, Post-Gazette Heather Smalley stands outside her Harrison home after it was destroyed by fire yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

Gone is the wedding dress she had worn just two weeks before. Gone are the wedding photos and the priceless negatives that served as a backup in case disaster struck.

Gone are his three all-terrain racing vehicles, one of which was outfitted to the tune of $20,000.

Most of what newlyweds Heather and Scott Smalley owned was lost in a fire yesterday at the home they had bought two months ago in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison.

Firefighters believe the blaze started when an overheated hot water heater exploded.

"We had mostly everything unpacked and were just getting done focusing on the wedding," said Ms. Smalley, who returned from buying her husband a brand new toolbox yesterday morning to find her house on Olive Avenue filled with smoke.

"We were just starting to finish up painting the rest of the house -- now it's gone."

Yesterday, the Smalleys scoured the remaining rubble of the burned out garage, twisted vinyl siding, soot-drenched clothes and broken brick of their two-story, four-bedroom house.

The few things Ms. Smalley did salvage were a few articles of clothing and two of her 3 1/2-year-old son's toy trucks.

Ms. Smalley, who lost her job earlier this year as a workers compensation claim operator in Pittsburgh, and Mr. Smalley, who works 70-hour weeks as a diesel truck mechanic, moved in to their $106,000 house on Sept. 30 with Ms. Smalley's two children from a previous marriage.

The couple were married on Nov. 12.

Things were turning around for the family until the day after the family's first Thanksgiving dinner.

Now, in the spirit of the holiday season, neighbors who had barely gotten to know the couple and their children have offered clothes, money, shelter and support in the wake of their loss.

"They offered them everything they could," said Elaine Mahan, the Smalleys' next-door neighbor. "It was a huge outpouring."

While Ms. Smalley and her husband returned to the blackened shell of her house yesterday to sift through piles of sootyclothes, neighbors approached her and her family with food, money and bags of clothes for her children.

"Our neighbors are absolutely amazing," said Ms. Smalley.

"We're not planning on moving. We're going to rebuild right there."