Tennessee fires: James Wood confirms his mother, Alice Hagler killed in Sevier County fire
“My mother called me frantically that the house was on fire, yelling that the house was on fire, and I told her to get out of the house,” Wood said, recounting the call he received at work. Wood then raced up the burning mountain to the home in the Chalet Village area on Piney Butt Loop in Gatlinburg.
Flames finally blocked the road, a stranger turned him around. He believes if he’d gone any further – he wouldn’t have made it.
“I just remember his eyes the look on his face saying im not leaving you, I’ll help you turn around. You’re coming down. Just thank you. Thank for you thinking of me when I couldn’t think for myself. A godsend,” Wood recalled.
Wood offered thanks and gratitude for the fire crews that tried to reach her and so many others.
“When I was turning around and couldn’t go any further, they were still rushing in, they were doing what no one else could and what no one else would.”