PINNACLE, N.C. — It's like living in your worst nightmare.
Sami Marion of Pinnacle said, “I looked out and on the left side, right here on the mountain, it was on fire, and I thought ‘what the world?’”
What You Need To Know
Sami Marion and her family live on the Pinnacle side of Pilot Mountain, where the fire first began
Marion and her family have been keeping a check on their cabin, which lies on their property line that connects with state park property line
As of Monday, 500 acres has been destroyed
To Marion, the Pilot Mountain knob represents home, and to look out of her bedroom window and see what she calls home in flames is something she never expected.
“Saturday night throughout the night and Sunday morning we started to realize it was starting to spread across the mountain to where the knob is, and last night we noticed the knob was on fire,” Marion said.
As of Monday, the fire has destroyed around 500 acres. It's growing fast. The total was just at 100 acres Sunday morning.
One of Marion and her family's biggest concerns is for their cabin, which is right at the property line next to the mountain.
“It’s almost like losing a loved one. It’s just very sad and depressing honestly. We all would be very heartbroken if something happened to it because we have a lot of memories there,” Marion said.
Marion and her sister, Jessi, and cousin, Sydney, have been riding four wheelers up to the property line a few times a day to keep a check on things, and they haven't been the only ones riding up and down that same road.
“Saturday night, once it started, the fire department reached out to us and asked if they could be using our farm road and just to monitor things. Then, if it were to come onto our land they would be there to help us, so we had fire trucks sitting in the cabin yard and all on the road here just monitoring,” Marion said.
As tightly knit as most small towns are, they have not been in this alone.
“Everybody is just kind of calling and texting, reaching out on social media, you know, people that you don't talk to every day or every week and they call you up just to check on you. That means more to us than anybody will ever know because that means a lot, especially in a small town. We all come together, and we’re kind of just a big family,” Marion said.