Danny Austin was outside enjoying the weather Friday afternoon when he noticed smoke coming from the back of his neighbor’s home.
Without hesitation, he ran into the home and found Edna Cates taking a nap on her couch. He said, “Granny, we’ve got to go,” said his mother, Joy.
Danny was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth.
“He was never supposed to walk or talk or be like a normal child,” Joy said. “But (the doctors) didn’t know God had other plans for him.”
The 41-year-old lives with his parents and visits with Cates every day. They have a close relationship and he even calls her Granny.
The fire started around 1:30 p.m. Friday at 247 Nick Springs Road in the backyard. Cates was burning brush, but said the grass and leaves around the pile were still wet.
“It was such a gorgeous day and we had been shut up for weeks with the rain,” Cates said. “The young man next door (a different neighbor) was out and he said there was not a breeze when I was out here.”
Cates went inside to fix lunch and said the next thing she knew, Danny was rushing inside to tell her they needed to go.
By the time he got to Cates’ house, the fire had already engulfed the backside of the home. Danny’s mother said Cates had propane tanks stationed in the RV on the side of her home, which blew. The fire even melted the siding off of her other neighbor’s home.
“It was a very intense fire and it lasted all day till about 8:30 p.m. or 9 p.m. before the firemen even got to leave,” Joy said. “It also jumped the highway and was burning in the woods.”
Joy said that Joe’s Grocery employee Adam Roberson got the Hibanks Volunteer Fire Department to respond. That area isn’t in El Dorado’s primary district, but they did respond to the fire as mutual aid request, said El Dorado Fire Chief Chad Mosby. Mosby was not at the scene of the fire.
“(Roberson) noticed the black smoke and knew what it was and he said, ‘I just turned around and went back to the station, got everybody, got the truck and came on,” Joy said. “That helped a lot for sure.”
A home insurance company inspected the site on Tuesday, but it has unofficially been deemed a total loss. Joy said her family is keeping an eye on the house because the fire department said it is unstable and no one is allowed inside.
Living with Cates are her two granddaughters who are currently in grade school. They were not home at the time of the fire.
“She’s a very sweet lady. She’s like my adopted grandmother too,” Joy said. “(Cates) is just astounded at how generous people are at a time like this and she’s very appreciative of the stuff.”
Cates said the outreach from the community has been overwhelming. The El Dorado High School Band donated clothes for the girls and Blackmon’s Furniture donated three mattresses.
“By 9 o’clock Friday night, the youth group at Old Union Baptist Church came to where we were and they had shoes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, hair brushes, a shirt and a pair of jeans for the girls to wear to church on Sunday and other things,” Cates said.
Cates said her nieces had a place ready for her and her granddaughters to stay within four hours. She also said they contacted the Red Cross and Women’s Auxiliary for her.
“There are even some that have brought stuff and left, and I didn’t know who left it,” Cates said.
Cates joked saying the bright side to this is that she doesn’t have to do yard work anymore. Cates and her granddaughters are now residing in a church parsonage.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].