An Elizabethton woman’s family is asking for help after she was displaced by home fires twice in just two weeks.
On Sept. 3, tragedy touched the life of 85-year-old Edith Campbell when a fire damaged her home at 161 South Street in the Hunter Community. Campbell had lived for 64 years and it was where she raised her children.
While the outside of the home bears no marks from the fire, the inside is another matter. The home is not inhabitable in the shape it’s in, Campbell’s daughter Judy Walton said. The fire was caused by electrical wiring, Walton said, and the whole house will have to be re-wired before power can be restored to the home.
The interior of the home was also heavily damaged, Walton said.
Many of her clothes and household items were destroyed, but Campbell said those can be replaced.
“You loose so much that you can’t replace, that’s what’s so sad about it,”Campbell said with tears in her eyes. “That was my home.”
After she was forced to move out of the house she had spent most of her life in, Campbell found a small place to live with a relative.
“She was moving into a trailer on Airport Road, and it caught fire on Tuesday morning,” Walton said, adding that fire was also attributed to faulty wiring.
In addition to losing two homes to fire this month, Campbell also fractured her heel in an accident and is in a wheelchair while she recuperates.
Now, Campbell is living in a motel as her family works to try to repair her home. However, Walton said the family is having difficulty with the costs for repairs because Campbell did not have insurance on the home.
“She couldn’t afford it,” Walton said of her mother. “She barely draws enough to pay the bills.”
The family is asking for help from the community to try to repair Campbell’s home on South Street.
“Basically what we need is money for supplies and manpower that doesn’t want anything for helping her out,” Walton said.
Though Campbell lost clothing and household goods during the fire, the family is not asking for donations of those items at this time. “She has enough clothes for now and she doesn’t have anywhere to put the other things right now,” Walton said.
The family has set up a bank account in the name of Edith B. Campbell with Regions Bank, located at 301 Broad Street in Elizabethton. Those interested in making monetary donations can do so through the bank account there.
Anyone who wants to donate building supplies or volunteer to help with the repairs can contact Judy Walton at 423-213-3616.