GATLINBURG

'We knew we lost our home': Immigrant family recalls escape from Gatlinburg wildfires 1 year ago

Knoxville

When he packed his girlfriend and children in the car and drove out of Gatlinburg on a dark and smoky night last November, Allan Rivera never imagined they wouldn't be able to go back home.

Allan Rivera holds his head in his hands while speaking about the constant financial stress he is under Sept. 20, 2017, at his family's home in downtown Gatlinburg. He and his family survived last year's wildfires but lost their home.

After work that day he had his usual cup of coffee and was sitting down to watch a movie with his family. That's when a neighbor knocked on the door and asked if they planned to evacuate.

"I told him, 'Why?' and he said we should evacuate immediately because of the smoke," Rivera said.

He looked outside. Trees were swaying in the wind. Lights were flickering on and off as if the electricity were about to go out. Heavy smoke hung in the air. But Rivera, 30, said he wasn't too worried.

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"It wasn’t looking so dangerous to me because I heard that no, it’s just the smoke from the mountains," he said. "They are burning up, but very, very far away from the town. I never expected something would happen like did happen."

Good advice

Still, he took his neighbor's advice and told his girlfriend, Lelin Romero, to pack a few things for an overnight. They called friends from church and asked if they could stay with them in Pigeon Forge.

"There was no traffic," Rivera said, recalling the family's escape from Gatlinburg the night of the November wildfires. "The only things were it was very dark and (there were) some fallen trees, but no burning trees."

Later that night, scrolling through Facebook around 9 p.m., Rivera said it occurred to him that their home, a rental cabin on Baskins Creek Road, might be in danger. He tried to drive back and get more of their belongings, but was turned around by police.

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It would still be several days before Rivera and his family would be able to return to their cabin, left in pieces by the fires, but he said he had a sense that first night of the loss.

"I remember at my friend’s house, we were praying for all the people affected," he said. "We knew we lost our home."

Rivera, Romero and their three children are among the hundreds of people who evacuated Gatlinburg that night and who lost their home and belongings in the fires.

Lelin Romero holds her 1-year-old son, Ethan, as she listens to her boyfriend, Allan Rivera, talk about their financial situation Sept. 20, 2017, at their family's home in downtown Gatlinburg. They are survivors of last November's wildfires.

Recalling that night

Asked to recount the night of Nov. 28 one year later, Rivera is reluctant at first.

The family is still in Gatlinburg, but they're trying to look forward. They have a new apartment they're renting.

Their oldest son, Simon, is back in school at Pi Beta Phi Elementary, a community in itself that lost two students in the fires and, because of damage, had to relocate others for a large part of the school year.

Rivera continues to work the same job as a busboy at a Gatlinburg restaurant, and his girlfriend, Romero, has been able to pick up work there too. In March, they were given $10,000 by an anonymous donor who read about their story in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Largely, they've moved on with their lives, though things were never easy to start with. As Honduran immigrants, Rivera says discrimination and poverty were, and remain, challenges they face daily.

The fires reinforced their motivation to stay together as a family and strengthened their faith, but they try not to look back too much.

Rivera says he has talked to his oldest son, Simon, about it only a handful of times.

"We don’t talk too much about that very scary moment," he said. "We don’t look back much. I try to not remember, because (I think about what we lost). If for any reason, our Lord works that way. Since that disaster, we have another chance."

Part I: Mountaintop spark, rising wind lit the fuse for Gatlinburg firestorm

Part II: Air attacks, big box couldn't cage fire's surge toward Gatlinburg

Part III: 'Like Armageddon': How the Gatlinburg fire became unstoppable and swarmed a city

Part IV: 'No way out': Sacrifice and survival in the final desperate hours of the Gatlinburg fire

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