Ferguson Road fire turns lives upside down

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: September 27, 2008

Even a house fire that results in “moderate damage” can turn lives upside down — just ask Harry Wayne Wilson and his family, whose home suffered fire, smoke and heat damage during a Sept. 10 fire.

Wilson shares the home on Ferguson Road in Ringgold with his daughter and son-in-law, Tina and Randolph Browning.

The insurance company is picking up the tab for Wilson to stay at the Innkeeper on Riverside Drive until the assessment and repairs are done, which could take up to three months.

The room has a small refrigerator and microwave, so Wilson can warm up canned foods and keep some drinks cold — but he longs to be back home.

“I’m bored as the devil,” he grumbled Wednesday. “I’d rather be out in the country and do what I want to do.”

Wilson said with gas prices so high, he can’t afford to run out to the property every day. He has only been able to visit his home twice, and gone to his church, River of Life Church on Sonshine Drive, only once since the fire.

But Wilson needs to be in a place with electricity, because he is a diabetic and his insulin must be refrigerated. All of his other medicines, for heart and other health conditions, virtually melted in the fire and had to be replaced.

“Even at $10 or $15 co-pay each, it was a lot all at once to replace them,” Randolph Browning said.

The Brownings are having an even tougher time because their housing needs were not covered by Wilson’s insurance.

They are sleeping in an old, small trailer in the backyard, formerly used for storage, and have set up a tent where they can shower and cook.

They do not have electricity or heat, but Randolph said he hopes to borrow a camper they can hook up to electricity over the next couple of days.

He is grateful for the help they have received so far.

“Tina works at Yorktowne, and they have been great — they’ve brought us food and water and other things, boxes of it,” Randolph said, while adding that it’s difficult for both the Brownings and Wilson to keep stocked with the kinds of foods they can prepare in their current living situations.

Until they hear from the insurance adjuster, who checked the house out on Sept. 19, they don’t know what to expect next.

“It will take a while to fix everything. Even though the fire didn’t get far, there’s smoke on everything and lots of things melted from the heat,” Randolph said, pointing to window air-conditioning units, the thermostat and smoke detectors, which are all just blobs of plastic now. The heat also blew out most of the windows, which will also need to be replaced.

“It’s a mess,” Randolph said. “I’ve boarded up the windows, but we can’t do anything else until the insurance adjustor tells us what they are going to do.”

Even though the home’s damage was considered moderate, this fire will cause months of upheaval for the family.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.