ST. HELENA - R.C. Davis Art Gallery went up in flames after Monday morning's severe thunderstorm.

The owner of an art gallery that sits in rural St. Helena Parish, Davis said he has been in business for more than 20 years. He's thankful for the firefighters who responded and stop the fire in time to save his paintings.

"They stopped the fire, I would say by looking at the paintings. I would say in a minute, in one minute, the fire would have probably damaged my biggest piece--the Spirit of New Orleans."

Now, he and his wife are spending time going through his paintings seeing what's left to salvage.

"Probably 75-thousand dollar worth of equipment, you know our frames--oh we had some big beautiful frames that I wanted to put on a piece I had just done for the Catholic Dices out here in St. Helena Church in Amite," Davis said.

After cleaning up is done, he plans to go back to work on new paintings.

"It's more important for me to stay positive and I've been a lucky guy, the good Lord has blessed me," Davis said.