SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn. — Five people were left without a home after their house burned down in Sevier County on March 19, at around midnight on Bluff Heights Road. The family left with just seconds to spare, leaving with only the clothes on their backs. Now, they are wondering where to go.
"If the walls could talk, it could tell you the love that was in this house," said Patricia Rayfield, a survivor of the fire. "I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else. It was home."
She said she lived at the property for more than a decade after her husband bought the land in 2011 as a place to call their own. Then, he died.
"My husband's buried there over there, his ashes. He wanted to own dirt before he died," said Rayfield. "Grace of God I made it out because I was in the living room when the lights went out and it was pitch black."
It was a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house. She said she felt the warmth of the fire grow from the floor beneath her, burning up and eventually turning her home into ash after she and her family escaped. She managed to leave through smoke with her daughter and her son-in-law., Bryson Caves.
"I told her, I said, 'Come on, we have to jump out or we're gonna die,'" he said. "It's been kind of rough we've all been feeling sick and she's just now starting to get her appetite back."
Two weeks after the fire, the family only has pictures and books as memories of their home. The family's indoor pets perished in the fire, but an outdoor guard dog survived.
"She was trying to save our animals. Unfortunately, we weren't able to save the animals," said Caves.
The family hopes to soon be back on the land her late husband bought as a home.
"Trying to get enough money up to get the land cleared and put a down payment on a mobile home," he said.
Sevier County Fire and Rescue said it still does not know what caused the fire, and it's still under investigation.
If you are interested in helping Bryson Caves and Patricia Rayfield, you can donate through their GoFundMe. The family is also in need of a locksmith to help them program their car keys to their ignition, after losing their car keys in the fire.