Firefighters battle the blaze
By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher
Grayson McKenzie, left, talks with First Responder Cindy Wiilliamson as he watches his house burn.
Grayson McKenzie was in a back room of his house talking on the telephone with a company about life insurance at about noon today when he heard a crackling sound.
He told the person he was talking with to hang on for a minute while he went to inspect the noise, thinking there might have been someone at the front door.
When he walked into the hallway he saw flames, and the living room was filled with smoke. He had to get down on the ground to escape the smoke and made it out of the house safely.
He called his wife, Donnie, on his cell phone and she called 911.While the fire department was on the way he wet down a shed behind the home to keep it from burning also.
Grayson and his wife have lived in the residence at 6 Pounds Road for 38 years, and he built the house himself. He plans to rebuild in the same location.
“My wife and I have been married for 38 years, and everything we’ve accumulated was in that house,” said Grayson as he watched the remnants of his house burn to the ground.
Grayson praised the work of the firefighters, telling Southwest Marion First Responder Cindy Williamson, “I appreciate everything you have done.”
If it weren’t for the prompt response of the fire departments, Grayson said the shed behind the house would have been lost, too. The cause of the fire is unknown, said Grayson.
During the fire, bullets that were inside the house began firing off from the flames.
Southwest Marion Volunteer Fire Department was assisted on the scene by Foxworth Volunteer Fire Department, the Forest Service, Third District from Louisiana and Third District from Walthall County.
