Gladeville TN House Fire

We had a fire at the farm this morning about 1:30 am. First things first, No One Was Hurt!

Many of you that come to Dobson Farms (especially CSA customers), or see us at the markets may know our friend and employee Terra. She lives here on the farm in a rental house that my parents own, and last night(2/8/24) at about 1:15am she heard a loud pop noise, and approximately 3-4 minutes later she noticed an orange glow coming through her bedroom window. She looked outside to see the deck and whole side of the house in flames!

She quickly called 911 and woke up the other renter, Kelly, who was asleep in the other bedroom, and came running down to our house to wake us up and let us know what was going on. Huge shout out to the Gladeville WEMA branch, they were on site with the fire truck within 7 minutes of 911 answering!!! They were able to put the fire out very quickly. Just a few minutes more and the house would’ve been fully involved, but as is, the fire was contained pretty much to one general spot, and 80% of it was outside. Unfortunately, that spot was right on Terra’s bedroom.

Between the fire itself, the water, and the physical damage from the firefighters having to dig into the wall and ceiling to get the fire out completely, Terra lost a number of personal belongings of both the common and heirloom types, on top of the fact that both Terra and Kelly will now be displaced from their housing situation.

Based on what we can tell, we think the fire was electrical in origin, and luckily it burned mostly outward, the structure itself has insurance, so we aren’t worried about that, and for the short term we are able to have Terra and Kelly stay at my house and/or my parents house next door, so their most immediate needs are being handled.

Neither Terra, nor Kelly have renters insurance however. So I am working on getting a GoFundMe campaign set up, which I will include a link at the bottom of this post. We are hoping to raise enough to replace the things that Terra lost in the fire, plus help offset the all the costs that Terra and Kelly will incur related to moving, getting set up in new places, and salvaging belongings that took smoke damage but weren’t destroyed.

If the house itself is repairable, we know it won’t be a short process, and with it being a mobile home, it may well be deemed a total loss. It’s still much too early to say any of that for sure, but our main focus is helping Terra and Kelly be able to get into to a stable home situation as quickly as we can while everything else is being sorted out.

We will be able to take stock later today of what all specifically was lost, and I will update with specific needs (clothing sizes, etc) as those needs become known. If you can contribute financially, we would GREATLY appreciate it, but we also appreciate all thoughts, prayers, healing energies, good vibes, and words of encouragement as well! We’re just happy that both Terra and Kelly are alive and unhurt. Thank You!!