WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — A family lost their home and their beloved puppy after a house fire in Wilson County on Monday.
The fire broke out at the home in the Churchill Downs neighborhood.
Cassie Laidlaw showed me the inside of the home for the first time. Watch the player above.
While she and her two kids, Analiese, 6, and Titus, 3, weren't at home, her husband Eric and their 1-year-old Bernadoodle puppy were.
"He went back into the house to try to save our family dog," explained Cassie, although it was too late to save Brighton. "Eric escaped at the last minute."
While the family tries to cope emotionally, Cassie has been returning to the house to salvage what she can.
"That's the hard part is coming back and seeing it like this versus how I remember it — full of life and a lot of hope for the future — it doesn't look like that anymore," she said. "You hug your babies closer (now)."
Even so, she commends the neighbors who showed up, the firefighters who worked hard, and the community that keeps giving.
"Wilson County is the dream. The dream," she insisted.
Cassie says the cause was an electrical fire on the lower deck.
The Laidlaws are currently staying with family and plan to rebuild their home in the future.
If you want to help with rebuilding costs, you can visit their GoFundMe.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at nikki.hauser@newschannel5.com.
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
