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Sevier Co. fire chief grateful his crews escaped the flames

As firefighters tried to protect the Von Bryan Estate, flames surrounded them on all sides. They escaped on foot, but four trucks are a total loss.

WEARS VALLEY, Tenn. — When Sevier County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Stephen Whaley called his team, everyone jumped in to help.

“They were up here on the first alarm on the first day that everything happened,” Whaley said. “This truck was assigned to come in and bring this crew water.”

Tanker 111 is a necessity for the department, run by volunteers and donations.

“With the water system that we have in the county being spotty here and there, every department has to have tankers to haul water to them,” Whaley said. “Usually when we go mutual aid with other departments, they want our tanker because they need the water.”

When his team arrived, fire surrounded the sides of the Von Bryan Estate. Firefighters tried to put them out, but the smoke and flames were too powerful.

Credit: WBIR

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“They couldn't get the trucks loose. They all had to break for it on foot,” Whaley said. “When all this was going down and I wasn't sure where they were at, I was pretty sick to my stomach.”

All of his firefighters are okay, but Tanker 111 is a total loss. The ladders melted into puddles on the ground. It can no longer carry water wherever firefighters need it.

“To replace it with one just like it new, we’re looking at $250,000 for a base model, nothing fancy,” Whaley said. “Everything that we had it insured for has almost doubled since then.”

He said the department is looking at money from insurance, FEMA and applicable grants. They are also looking at used trucks that the department could potentially afford.

“I couldn't be any more proud of [my firefighters] as if they were my own kids there,” he said. “I've got a great bunch of volunteers — eager, enthusiastic —and they're always ready to go.”

On a mission to supply firefighters with more water, 23-year force veteran Jim Carr was trapped.

"l laid down in the truck in the floorboard and made my last video so I've never been to that point," Carr said. 

At that moment, the veteran firefighter said he was also surrounded by an eerie silence.

"Our only outlet was blocked. We were surrounded by fire," Carr said. "For a fire scene, you usually have people yelling different instructions or they're doing this or that. Didn't hear none of that."

Inhaling smoke, he stayed low crawling from truck to truck, making sure his fellow fighters had escaped.

"The smoke is very blinding. It burns. What was going through my head was okay, maybe they got into their truck to seek some type of shelter," Carr said. 

At that moment this firefighter said he was overwhelmed with terror. 

"If you could see the expression on a goldfish's face when it's out of the bowl, just the taking in air that it's not there," Carr said. 

He got back into his tanker, the smoke grew thick and he thought he was about to take his last breath. 

"I'm going to die, that was it," Carr said. 

That's when he pulled out his phone to document the end. A moment too private to share with the public. 

"A few last words for my wife and kids," he said. "For me to go to that extent, I was a dead man."

Sitting in this tank, a call from his wife surprised him. She encouraged him to find a thermal camera that could help spot the flames and safe ground. 

"I could see darkness on the ground which indicates cool spots," Carr said. 

Using it in the darkness, he found a fire break churned up earth cleared by a bulldozer. 

"About halfway down that dozer road, the other five guys were on their way back to find me," Carr said. 

He's still processing his near-death experience but he has no plans of giving up his job. 

"Just the love to help and to help your fellow man in their worst time of need," he said. 

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