It was a typical night at Davidson’s home in New Tazewell, Tennessee, on December 8th. Chris and Nicole Davidson ate their three children dinner, put them to bed and were asleep at 8:30 p.m.
Hours later, Nicole Davidson woke up with the smell of smoke. Within minutes, the family home was on fire and 22-month-old Erin Davidson was trapped in her room.
While the couple was able to grab their two-year-old son Elijah and Eli, who has been welcomed by the family for nearly a year, Erin’s bedroom was surrounded by fire.
“The smoke and fire were so thick that there was no way I could get to it,” Chris Davidson told CNN. “We went out into the street to look for her from the window, but there was nothing I could stop to get up there. So I grabbed Eli, who went through the window and was able to grab her from the crib. “.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Eli,” Davidson said. “He did something an old man wouldn’t do.”
And he did it just in time.
When 20 firefighters arrived at the scene, they were set on fire. The next day, “there was nothing left,” new Tazewell fire chief Josh Miracle told CNN.
“I thought I couldn’t do it, but then I said, ‘I got it, Dad,'” Eli told CNN. “I was scared, but I didn’t want my sister to die.”
The Davidsons have accommodated 34 children, including Eli, and have adopted two more: Erin and Elijah. Both Nicole and Chris Davidson are also former firefighters.
“We’ve lost everything we’ve ever had,” Chris Davidson said. “All our lives were in this house. Our three cars were also damaged by the fire.”
“It’s devastating. We have nothing,” he said. “You’ve never been so humble as when you don’t even have your own underwear.”