BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. – Sherry Dean was home alone when the horrific wildfire started to close in on her Westley Road property.
The 83-year-old woman had lived in her Brantley County home all of her life and built her beauty shop across the street.
At the time, she did not know the magnitude of the fire until her granddaughter came to rescue her as the flames intensified.
“I didn’t think too much of it that day,” Dean told News4JAX on Thursday. “I kept telling them that I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave my house.”
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And she meant what she said. Instead of quickly grabbing what she could to get to safety, Dean went to grab a fire hose.
“I came out with my water hose and wet down my shop. I didn’t spray my house. I probably would have, but my granddaughter got here pretty quickly,” Dean said.
Her granddaughter’s arrival is what finally got Dean out to safety — and it may have come just in time. In some spots, the fire burned to within roughly 20 feet of her home and business.
Dean’s daughter, Kristie Johnson, who lives in South Carolina, said the moment her mother left the property, she assumed everything was gone.
“I’ve seen videos from your guys’ news broadcasts showing the flames that were burning right behind her house at this time,” Johnson said. “They told us that the flames went right over the house and that they didn’t think there was gonna be anything left.”
When she learned the house was still standing, the relief was overwhelming.
“The house is still standing there in the middle,” Johnson said, pausing through tears. “It was nothing short of a miracle.”
Dean shared that same sense of gratitude.
“God and his angels swept that fire over my house and saved my house,” she said.
The Brantley County wildfires damaged 87 homes in the area. Dean’s home and beauty shop were among the structures that survived, surrounded by destruction on all sides.