Teresa Woodard, Reporter
WBIR, Knoxville, TN
April 12, 2005
It was just before 9:00 Sunday morning. Members of Cosby's Volunteer Fire Department were at their station, when they got the call that a mobile home was on fire. Then the news got worse.
"The dispatcher told us he thought there might be young 'uns in the house," says Cosby Volunteer Fire Captain Mike Shropshire.
The department was on the scene in three minutes.
"As soon as we arrived on the scene there were people running everywhere wanting to get the kids out," he says.
Shropshire went in the back door, while the chief went to the other side of the trailer.
"We had to try to find those children. That was the only thing in our minds," says Assistant Fire Chief Chris Gregg. "We had to knock the fire down as much as we could while the chief and the captain were inside trying to get the children."
"I had to crawl in. The smoke was extremely think in there. It wasn't ventilating good," Shropshire remembers.
He knew a three month old baby was somewhere in a back bedroom, but he couldn't see him, or hear him.
"I was crawling around and I accidentally hit his foot, and he cried. If I hadn't hit him, I would have never found him. His crying led me to him, lying on the floor."
Neighbor Heather Funderburk was right outside the door when Shropshire pulled the baby to safety.
"I just couldn't handle it," she says. "I think I went down on one knee."
The fire chief didn't have as much luck; a four year old boy, Marcus, and 16 month old girl, Vikki, died. They were found in a bedroom near the den where the fire started.
"It was probably one of the worst days I've ever had in the fire service, and I also work as a paramedic. It's probably one of the worst ones I've had between the two," Gregg says.
Wings medical helicopter flew baby Takoda Wines, to UT Medical Center with his father, Steve. The mother, Dana and a four year old girl, Alexis, went to Cocke County Baptist Hospital. They were treated and released.
Firefighters are torn up because the family is torn apart. For one child there was a miracle; for two others, a terrible end.
"'The man upstairs' was with that young 'un that day," says Shropshire of the baby he rescued. "He had to be. There's no other way."
Neighbor Funderburk is reflective, too.
"They were beautiful children. It's a shame their life got cut so short, but they're in God's arms now," she says.
The fire marshal says a faulty electrical lamp caused the fire.
