In aftermath of Birdsong Resort fire, owner looks to rebuild

BENTON COUNTY, Tenn. — After a Tuesday evening fire caused extensive damage at Birdsong Resort, the owner says he is grateful for the response and that he plans to rebuild.

A resident of the popular resort area south of Camden described the moment she discovered the fire.

“Open up the back door and saw the showroom here on fire in gulfs. It was just black smoke and flames as high as you could see,” Terry Rankin said.

Rankin has been a resident of Birdsong Resort, Marina and RV Campground for 16 years. She and her fiancé discovered the Pearl Museum and Service Department on fire around 5:30 pm. Tuesday. She said they grabbed their pets, left the house and called 911.

The neighbors who called in the fire said they ran behind the building during the middle of the blaze just to turn off the propane tank and said they are grateful that things didn’t get a lot worse.

“As you can see right there, we’re 20 feet from propane tanks,” Rankin said. “So if the propane tanks would have went, it would have leveled Birdsong Marina.”

Bob Keast is the second-generation family owner of Birdsong Marina, and he is grateful for what he said was at least 100 Benton County emergency responders who came to the rescue. He also told us that he won’t let the loss of what he calls “just stuff” keep him down.

“A lot of things running through my mind,” Keast, said. “Plans to rebuild, pick myself up by the bootstraps and ride right along.”

And what does Keast plan on doing next?

“Not going to do anything different,” he said. “This is all I’ve done since I was 10 years old. I’m 66 now, and what else would I want to do? We’re going to build up, build it bigger, and everything will be OK.”

We spoke to Benton County EMA Director Richard Kee who told us they still are uncertain what caused the fire, but they suspect it was spread by a variety of flammable materials stored within the service department of the boat shop.