Brasstown – All should have been well at 2:05 a.m. May 8 as Tami Mileti-Rayburn lay sound asleep in her quiet residence, but when her three dogs began barking in the wee morning hours she was awakened.
As she peered out of the second-floor window, it wasn’t the moon or stars that caught her eye – it was flames from her own house.
Terrified and alone, as her husband was out of state in Indiana, she ran outside to get the full scope of the situation. She quickly put her three dogs in the car, then picked up a garden hose and began dousing the fire in her nightgown while barefoot.
Several days prior, she had hooked up the hoses to water her plants, so there was no time wasted in connecting the hoses. At one point, her first floor tenant came outside to assist with getting the flames under control.
The first fire truck on the scene was from the Murphy Fire Department, which arrived in about 12 minutes, according to Mileti-Rayburn. She believes the quick response was because Murphy recently approved having a paid firefighter at the station around the clock, so they were able to respond right from the station.
She was attempting to put the flames out when they arrived. Although the house sustained damage, it never became fully involved. Mileti-Rayburn also believes the barking of her dogs saved her life, as she would not have been aware of the fire beneath her since her fire alarms didn’t go off.
The fire burned about a 10-foot hole in her deck, then went up the side of her house, burning the exterior wall of her dining room. Mileti-Rayburn was hurt after slipping and falling on a railroad tie.
She didn’t even realize she was hurt until someone told her that her legs were bleeding. The house was insured, so repairs can start as soon as possible.
“My mother’s home burnt to the ground on Jan. 16 of this year. She’s almost 80 years old and lived in Mineral Bluff (Ga.). To go through that house fire, and then your own house catches on fire just three months later, I was fighting for my life,” Mileti-Rayburn said. “I was not gonna loose my house after my mom lost hers. She lives next to me in an efficiency now.”
Mileti-Rayburn believes the fire was started as the result of a thunderstorm when lighting struck the gas line to her grill.
“No one will ever tease me about my yappy dogs again,” she said with a smile.
“They truly are heroes, and saved my life and our home. They got fed steak and cheese that night.”