(WBIR - PIGEON FORGE) Two Massachusetts families returned to a Pigeon Forge resort two and a half years after a devastating fire destroyed all of their belongings.
They rented the cabin from Tim and Sharon Lavender, who own the Black Bear Ridge Resort cabin that burned to the ground in March 2013. The Lavenders rebuilt their cabin first, among the 53 cabins destroyed and 20 others damaged in the fire, and offered the two families a free stay in return for what they endured last time.
"There was a house next to us that was on fire, and by the time we got back to the place that we rented, which was maybe all of five to 10 minutes, our cabin was also burned down to the ground," Rula Kerins, who was one of those who lost everything in the fire, said. "It was really, really traumatic at first because people have medications that needed to be taken. We had nothing with us but the clothes on our backs."
Jacqueline Hodgkins and her family was staying with Kerins and her family at the time. They were all out when the fire started. She said it was surreal how much destruction the fire caused in such a short amount of time.
"It doesn't hit you until you go to reach for something," Hodgkins said. "You know, we get home. You have no hairbrushes. You know, we had our cabin. We had our crockpots, and pots and pans. We had our electronic equipment. We had everything, you name it. All gone."
Both Hodgkins and Kerins said they were extremely grateful for the Lavenders' offer to let them revisit.
"They were kind enough to extend an invitation for us to come back to this cabin, which, honestly, we didn't think we would end up doing," "The generosity of them is overwhelming. People don't do that anymore."
But they said they're glad they took the chance.
"We had a little bit of hesitation, of course," Jacqueline Hodgkins said. "I don't want to… I'm afraid… You know, that sort of thing. [But I'm] so glad we did. It's beautiful. I mean, you can't even tell anything even happened."
The fire racked up more than $11 million dollars of damage, but no one was hurt. Investigators never determined a cause.
