MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — If good neighbors pitch in when you need help, then consider Bonnie Bowers a great one.
"I heard wrestling around and something and I need to go check on him, something’s wrong, and I looked," said Bowers, who immediately saw flames bursting out of her neighbor's home. "I just went straight to the water hose and turned it on and tried to go put it out."
She worked with the Wade family to try to put out the flames, until they realized it was getting way out of control.
"It was so much smoke and it was engulfed," she said. "Everyone was evacuating. We all got our pets out, we all went to the park."
Thankfully the mom, dad, two kids and five-month-old baby that make up the Wade family all made it out unscathed. Their house, not so much. Montgomery County Volunteer Firefighters declared it a total loss on social media.
But it wasn't just firefighters and EMTs rushing to the scene Sunday. So did complete strangers.
"They came, they saw smoke, they said how can we help?" recounted Bowers.
Nina Glover doesn't even live in the Hickory Wild neighborhood. She was driving home to her nearby apartment.
"We saw like the smoke coming up in the air and I’m like, oh my God, that really looks like a house fire," said Glover.
After Glover and her partner drove by the house and saw the daunting destruction, she made a simple Facebook post.
"I did not expect to go viral," said Glover.
She's been facilitating an avalanche of donations ever since.
"From clothes, shoes, food, diapers, wipes, money — they just want to help where they can," said Glover.
Bowers got in on the action too, gathering gifts in kind in her own garage from neighbors and concerned Montgomery County residents. Thankfully, a lot of the donations are now sitting in the Wade family's newly donated storage unit.
Thank goodness for that, because churches, businesses and anyone else who has driven by the Venmo QR code on their mailbox have stepped up too.
"It’s unbelievable," said Bowers. "By the time they laid their head on their pillow that night they had $7,000 in GoFundMe and $1,200 in cash."
Fire response
Bowers laments that the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Department couldn't arrive sooner. By her estimation, it took firefighters 20 minutes to arrive on scene. It took even longer to get a ladder truck in place.
Technically, the City of Clarksville Fire Hall is closer to their home than the Montgomery County Hall, but the Wade family lives outside of city limits. Because county residents don't pay city taxes, they aren't able to receive city services.
The City of Clarksville and Montgomery County have a mutual aid agreement, but that would require the respective chiefs to agree to the partnership.
Bowers is grateful no one was trapped inside, otherwise the scenario could be been far more dire.
How to help
The outpouring of support for the Wade family has been so great, NewsChannel 5 is told they hope to firmly replant their roots back in the Hickory Wild neighborhood once they're able to get back on their feet.
If you'd like to donate to their recovery, you can send a payment on Venmo @WadeFamily2024.
There's also a GoFundMe fundraiser. You can donate here.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
