Couple finds sparkle of hope with marriage proposal after Holiday Fire burns down home

Out of the ashes of the Holiday Fire came a sparkle of joy that lit the internet on fire.

Over the weekend, after the dust had settled and mandatory evacuations had been reduced, a Goleta couple made their way back to their home of three years to discover it had burned down Friday night in the Holiday Fire.

Ishu and Laura Rao returned to their home site with a Santa Barbara County Fire escort to let Laura search for her wedding ring, wrote Mike Eliason, Santa Barbara County Fire spokesperson, on his Twitter page.

Laura managed to find her Tiffany & Co ring within the rubble, and although damaged, the ring took on a new meaning for the couple’s everlasting love.

Ishu promptly dropped to one knee and asked Laura to marry him again. The moment was caught by Eliason’s camera lens and posted to Twitter, which as of Monday morning, has well over 200 retweets, 31 comments, more than 771 likes, and has even made it to the national spotlight.

We reached out to Tiffany’s in Santa Barbara who learned of the story through the many Twitter users that tagged the company with Eliason’s Tweet and are hoping they can work with the couple on restoring their precious ring, after all, Tiffany’s is not just another jewelry store, it’s family.