Woman’s faith sustaining after fire

“I feel like Job from the Bible,” Brandee Quayle said Wednesday morning following a fire that destroyed her home in the Shocco community east of Canton.

As she picks up the pieces, she says she has found peace in her faith and an outpouring of support from the community.

“I know that God has a plan and that I need to be patient and leave it to him,” she said. “I am grateful for the donations I have received from people who do not even know me. It is overwhelming.”

Quayle said she was awakened by her dogs, Dozer and Rambo, around 2:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. 

“We all woke up at the same time, and they were on top of me,” she said.“I looked out the window, and the side-by-side had already caught fire.”

Quayle said she could hear popping and what sounded like explosions from the fire. She grabbed what she could — some clothes, her shoes, her purse, her medicine and a box with her grandmother and great-grandmother’s rings inside.

When she reached her front door the flames were too intense to exit the house. She said she ran to her back porch and jumped off. Dozer and Rambo followed her.

When she came around to the front of her house, her car was on fire.

At 2:49 a.m. she called 9-1-1 and was told to get to the end of her driveway. She said she then crossed the street and sat on a neighbor’s front porch while fire trucks pulled up and got to work on the home she had built with her husband, the late Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Quayle, just 10 miles east of Canton on Barns Road.

Later that morning, when she attempted to see what she could recover from the shell of her house, the fire rekindled. Firefighters returned to put the fire out. This time, all the fire left were two walls.

Quayle said she lost her husband to complications from a surgery in 2021 and has endured hardships since then.

“I was just getting the feeling I was back in the swing of things,” Quayle said.

Though all she has is all she could grab while escaping the flames. she is not rebuilding from nothing. She has her adult children, Raleigh and Austin, who live nearby and she has been able to move in with her boyfriend, Daniel Lofton.

“We knew we would get married but he said I guess this moves things up a little bit,” Quayle said.

Her sister-in-law Kerry Hawkins has helped coordinate support and donations for her.

“People reached out and I know she is very thankful for what people have done already,” Hawkins said.

Donations have included shoes, clothes, money and other essential items.

“We know God is in control but anything that takes even a little bit of the stress off of her is greatly appreciated,” Hawkins said.

Anyone who would like to extend Quayle a helping hand can contact Kerry Hawkins at (601) 209-2924 or by email at hawk9833@bellsouth.net.