One North Mississippi Family Loses Its Home In Gatlinburg Wildfire

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI)-Thousands of people living in Gatlinburg, Tennessee are coming back into town this weekend.

For many, there isn’t much left of their homes and businesses after wildfires caused major damage this week.

At least 13 people died and 80 others suffered injuries.

District 20 State Representative Chris Brown’s family was inside of their home in Gatlinburg when the fire began.

Everyone got out safely, however, Brown said once he got the phone call about the shocking news, fear immediately crept in.

Brown said his wife was putting up Christmas decorations all around their home, that is until the raging wildfire started heading straight towards their home.

“My wife and son and family were up there for my son’s birthday, and my neighbor called and said, they probably need to get out of there,” said District 20 State Representative Chris Brown.

Once they heard the news, they immediately dropped everything they were doing, grabbed anything that was in sight, and rushed out of town as quickly as they could.

“They knew that there was a lot of ash and soot in the air but they didn’t see any fire,” said Brown. “So without the neighbor warning us they probably would have been stuck up there.”

Brown said his family drove to Knoxville, Tennessee, to escape the smokey fire.

Their home is now torched to pieces.

Brown said he still hasn’t been back to view the damage, he’s only seen photos of the now destroyed home.

“My neighbor finally got in and showed us the picture and it’s just, just a chimney and a foundation,” he said. “It’s a complete total loss.”

Brown said his family had planned to spend Christmas at their Gatlinburg home this year, now they’ll have to make other plans.

However through it all, Brown said he’s just thankful that his family was able to make it out ok, and escape the fire just in the nick of time.

“Thank the lord our home is in Mississippi,” the state representative said. “So all of our personal stuff and pictures and things like that are here. We left a lot of memories in the rubble there, but our family is safe so we’re glad. Although everything else can be replaced, I thank the lord that all of that was fine.”

Now Brown and his family will travel up to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, this weekend to asses the damages and talk things over with their insurance company to see if they can rebuild.