By FireRescue1 Staff
GATLINBURG, Tenn. — A firefighter who battled the vicious wildfires last week put the safety of others and their homes before her own.
Amanda Perryman was one of hundreds of firefighters who battled the wildfires that ravaged Gatlinburg. She, and at least four other first responders, lost their own homes in the fires, reported WBIR.
Perryman, a firefighter and paramedic for the Gatlinburg Fire Department, was leaving for vacation Nov. 28 with her husband when she was alerted of the fast-spreading wildfires. The couple returned to the city to aid in battling the fires.
“We came here first to our home because my husband is a retired captain with the Gatlinburg Fire Department and he needed his fire gear,” Perryman said. Standing near the ruins of her home Thursday, she said, “There wasn’t fire here yet. We could see it, but it was far away.”
However, the fire quickly reached their home, and the two had to abandon their home.
“I was looking at my house still not thinking it was going to burn and said, ‘What should I grab?’ And by that time we weren’t here three minutes and my husband’s yelling ‘we gotta go, we gotta go,’” Perryman said. “We could see huge flames coming over the trees. And we didn’t think we were going to make it out.”
Although Perryman and her husband lost most of their belongings in the fire, they are grateful for their own safety. The two say they found support from their colleagues and have received an outpouring of cards, messages and financial support from fire departments around the world.