BRISTOL, Tenn. – A Bristol family stood in their yard Thursday night watching fire gut their home of seven years.
About 10 p.m., Brett Morey and his wife were watching television, their two daughters asleep down the hall, when flames consuming their garage blew through the windows and the door.
“All I could think about was getting my girls and my wife out,” Morey said. They ran out the door, their schnauzer escaping with them and the coy pond safe in the back lawn.
Their home security company called 911.
Fire burned through the entire downstairs of the two-story house, on Old Jonesboro Road just across from the Country Club of Bristol. Morey said they lost almost everything, including the cars parked in the garage. Though he managed to dig out his youngest daughter’s blankie and his oldest daughter’s cell phone.
“We’ve got houses offered to us already and cars offered to us already, so we’re good,” he said Friday on his lawn, staring at the ruins of his home.
His wife’s aunt, Jamie White, who stopped by Friday with reinforcements, said the response of friends and family has been a lesson in kindness. Morey’s wife is a school teacher and the father of one of her students owns a car lot. He offered them something to drive. Their church donated clothes to the kids, an anonymous donor dropped off two brand new bicycles for the girls, ages 7 and 11.
“Everybody’s safe and sound, so life goes on and that’s all I care about,” Morey said. “I’m all about moving on.”
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531
Advertisement