Alderman’s home burns same night he’s sworn into office

SELMER, Tenn. — A fire rips through a newly elected alderman’s family home Tuesday night — the same night he’s sworn into office.

“It was an older home, red brick, had the large red columns,” Mike Grier said of his neighbor’s destroyed home.

Selmer Alderman John Austin said the home was built in the 1960s by his grandparents and has been a part of the family for decades.

According to Selmer Fire Chief Anthony Carr, units were dispatched around 9.p.m. to the house on West Cherry Avenue.

Carr said firefighters worked for nearly eight hours to control the flames.

Grier said he could see the flames from his kitchen window. “The whole horizon there was bright orange. It was like half the world over there’s on fire.”

When the fire department arrived, more than half the home was engulfed with flames, Chief Carr said.

Alderman Austin said he and his family began moving into the home Sunday. He estimates about 85 percent of his family’s personal items were inside.

Nearly 1,400 feet of hose had to be used to put out the fire, Carr said.

“It’s not the house that burned — it’s all the memories that were inside that burned,” neighbor Glenda Ray said. “It’s just a sad thing.”

Ray said she was looking forward to having the alderman live next door.

The fire is being investigated but does not appear suspicious at this time, officials said.

Austin said the home is insured.