Hiwassee Dam – After a fire destroyed a mobile home and everything inside it Saturday, firefighters sifting for things to salvage found something in the middle of the structure, where the fire was most intense.
It was Dorothy Graham’s Holy Bible. Its cover was severely charred, but all its pages – along with photos and other mementos tucked inside – were unscathed.
J.C. and Dorothy Graham escaped with their lives, but little else, at the 2201 Sunny Point Road house that they have called home for a decade.
Mrs. Graham smelled smoke just after 1 p.m. Saturday and alerted her husband, who was outside in the shop. Graham found flames when he checked the under skirting, and the couple fled their home.
The structure was fully ablaze as firefighters arrived. The cause is thought to be electrical.
“They lost everything,” said Pam Harris, one of the Grahams’ three adult children.
Put in perspective, the fire destroyed important papers inside their safe, but not the pages inside the charred binding of Mrs. Graham’s Bible. “Not one page inside that Bible was harmed,” Harris said.
While the fire was devastating, the response from the community was overwhelming in its own way.
In all, 51 volunteer firefighters and 19 pieces of fire apparatus responded to the fire from throughout western Cherokee County and even Copper Basin, Tenn., said Chad McNabb, chief of the Hiwassee Dam Volunteer Fire Department.
The American Red Cross responded immediately with a gift card to buy clothing and other necessities. Because they are staying with their daughter, Pam Harris, they did not require housing assistance.
People present at the scene left money for the Grahams. McNabb expressed awe that the Bible escaped destruction, but added that it’s the second time he’s seen that happen.