On July 29, around 5:40 p.m., West Middle School (WMS) teacher Belinda Stuart received a text from one of her fellow teachers. The text informed Stuart that the fire alarm was going off at West Middle School and that Stuart’s classroom had been pinpointed as the reason. Local firefighters later shared that an electrical fire started by a multi-plug surge protector. Stuart shared, “The surge protector strip had been in my classroom, in the same spot, for quite some time. Nothing was plugged into it at the time. It was just plugged into the wall. [Evidently] it began smoldering and burst into flames, catching fire to an American flag and a Tennessee flag displayed on the wall overhead. And from there, it went.”
Fortunately, neither Stuart nor her students were in the classroom. Stuart was at home dealing with sickness related to COVID, and her students were returning from summer vacation in three days. They were safe. However, not all was safe back at school. The heat intensified, sending smoke and flames on a rampage across Stuart’s room. The fire devoured everything in close proximity. Teaching materials, personal items, and all of the technology in the room, including Stuart’s Smart Board screen, were ruined. But the most significant blow came with the realization that Stuart’s collection of books was destroyed and not salvageable. Stuart shared, “Boxes and boxes of personal books [that] I [had] collected in the 30-something years I’ve been teaching were burned in the fire. What didn’t get melted and burned was damaged by water. The sprinkler system did damage first. Then the firemen came in with their hoses going and drenched everything. It was bad.”
Wildly enough, Stuart has her students participate in memory work each semester. They memorize poems, speeches, and such. As if it were a little smirk into the future, the 2022-2023 school year’s memory work was a quote from Joseph Fort Newton that says, “We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us—how we can take it, what we do with it—and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty— that is the test of living.” Stuart was able to model this very concept for her students, co-workers, friends, and peers.
In the days following the fire, many people asked Stuart if she was upset, if she had “lost it,” or if she cried at the news of her classroom catching fire and destroying her possessions. She would reply: “I didn’t cry. I didn’t lose it. I was saddened by it. But these are things I don’t have control over. What I do have control over is how I respond. So my response is: nobody got hurt, and the things are all replaceable.”
So as Stuart was guiding her emotions relative to the fire and frantically getting ready for the school year beginning in just a few short days, Stuart’s son, Adam, got to work. The fire happened on a Friday. By Saturday Adam, and his wife, Tori, posted an Amazon wishlist online. They simply explained the situation and posed an opportunity for others to give and help restore what was lost in the fire.
Stuart shared, “As soon as they found out about the fire on Friday evening, they started quizzing me about the books that I had in my collection. So I started telling them, and they put together an Amazon wishlist, which took off like wildfire. By Sunday, it had gone viral with over a hundred thousand people talking about my classroom.”
Adam shared that his mom had been building her book collection for as long as he could remember. Stuart has been teaching in Tennessee since 2003 and taught in Alabama for 15 years prior to that. So she had a lot of books, and they were all gone. But almost overnight, something magical happened. Former students, friends, and complete strangers from all over the country and even abroad started donating and mailing books to replace those lost. Stuart shared, “Within a week’s time, I had as many if not more books than I started with.” One night, the Stuart family and their friends sat together and unpacked over 700 boxes of books and school supplies.
One thing that could be gleaned from this unfortunate event is this: while fire spreads rampantly, kindness does too. Good news can be found in the most peculiar places — even among the ashes. Stuart shared about the experience, “It was a remarkable experience to have that kind of support and love from people I know, as well as people I don’t know. It was extraordinary. It was overwhelming and surprising.” GN
