Woman loses everything but faith in house fire
Fire takes all but faith from DeKalb woman Longtime Meridian radio personality Carrie Boyd believes the Lord spared her when the DeKalb home her father built 40 years ago burned last month
The fire ravaged the home on the evening of April 20. Everything was seemingly normal as Boyd returned home that spring night.
After entering her home, Boyd formerly of WNBN 1290 AM, was planning to retire after a long day, but her plans quickly changed.
Compelled by what Boyd believes to be God's intervention, she returned to her living room from her bedroom to find smoke pouring out of the walls, followed by a burst of flames.
"If I hadn't listened to God, I would have been stuck up inside the house. … Once the fire had come out the wall, it lit up everything," Boyd said.
Boyd scrambled for the electrical box, which was being immersed in the quickening flames, but once more, she felt an unseen force telling her it would be a futile effort.
Instead, she ran out of the house and to her truck, escaping the inferno that now engulfed the house which her father built after his regular work.
As she drove away, she looked back to see flames illuminating every window of the house.
She had only salvaged the clothes on her back. Now, the house is nothing but ruins, ashes, a burnt reminder of what stood before.
"It's a hard pill to chew off when you see that your parents worked so hard to get this and leave it back for you after their death," Boyd said.
Boyd's father had drawn out the plans nearly half a century ago and built the home himself.
"It's all hard to chew off. It's a hard thing if you've never had a fire burn out," she said. "You lose a lot of things, a lot of memories, a lot of pictures.
"Clothing can be replaced, but you can't replace all them pictures of your parents, my daddy and my momma's pictures, and sisters, and brothers, and where they went to high school and all this. It's all hard."
Boyd was a radio personality for over 30 years, helping her local faith community in the Meridian area with her radio show.
She worked very closely with the now deceased and former owner of WNBN 1290 AM Frank Rackley for many years. Eddie Rackley, the brother of Frank Rackley, recalls the service Boyd gave to the station towards the end of Frank Rackley's life.
"She ran [the radio station] while my brother was down, and then when he passed away, … they left her as the manager of the station. So she's done very well," he said.
Unfortunately, there was no insurance on the home. Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, Carrie was not working and her income was already limited, said friend Pat Williams in a Facebook post.
Boyd would give churches' announcements on-air, sometimes pro bono, about upcoming revivals or singing programs. Other times, churches could buy ads for Boyd's show where the pastor could preach on-air.
Boyd had even done benefit programs for people who had suffered from events similar to what she now faces. One of Boyd's long-time friends, Doviacenia Pipkin, endured one such similar tragedy.
Pipkin, who now works in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, has known Boyd for about three decades. Pipkin's father was a minister who advertised with Boyd, and Pipkin and Boyd have been friends ever since. Pipkin describes Boyd succinctly as "just really a good person, inside and out."
"Sometimes she'd speak at the schools. She would counsel kids. She would be at conventions speaking. She would go to different churches: at their revivals, at their get-togethers, whatever they had. She was just always on the go," Pipkin said.
In the early 2000s, Pipkin's home burned down in much the same way as Boyd's, leaving Pipkin and her daughter without shelter.
"I felt exactly everything that [Boyd] felt," Pipkin said. "I felt the same things. That's when I tried to calm her down. I calmed myself down, and I calmed her down. She said, ‘I have nowhere to go,' and I said, ‘It's gonna be okay. You believe in God?' She said, ‘Yes.' I said, ‘Okay, well, we gotta leave it in the hands of God.'"
Helping God work his ways, Pipkin and her husband set up a GoFundMe page to try and collect enough money to secure Boyd at least a couple of month's rent, but so far, it has only collected under $100. Pipkin hopes, if more people come to learn of Boyd's story, more people will want to help the woman who has done so much for her community.
"I'm just hoping that, when I look back in that GoFundMe, God has provided this, that he has helped me to help her to get this pressure off and give her a stable home again, so she can relax," Pipkin said.
The fundraiser that Pipkin started can be found at "Carrie Boyd DJ for WNBN lost everything in Fire" on GoFundMe for more information.
As for Boyd, she says the experience has deepened her faith and trust in God. She hopes to eventually rebuild her parents' home on the remaining foundations, but she takes solace in what she already has.
"This is just devastating for me, but I know God gonna bless me, which he already blessed me when I woke up this morning," Boyd said. "And what he blessed me, he blessed me with life, if I don't have a place to lay my head on."