St. Augustine woman, daughter thought they'd die in Tenn. wildfires

A St. Augustine woman and her daughter were among thousands of people who had to escape the wildfires in Eastern Tennessee.

The fire has claimed the lives of at least a dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Cathy Conner got out just in time before her home went up in flames. She shared her remarkable story with Action News Jax.

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“The wind started picking up really strong, almost to the point that we thought a tree might fall on us,” Conner said.

The power then went out, but Conner said everything still looked fine, just windy.

So she and her daughter decided to go to bed. Minutes later, she received a phone call from her builder, a call that would save her life.

“He said, 'I hope you guys aren’t still on the mountain', (adding) ... 'You need to get out immediately,'” Conner said.

She said she rushed downstairs and looked out the window.

"And there were red embers everywhere, just flying on the porches,” she said.

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Conner and her daughter made a quick decision to get in the car and go, but there were huge flames down below.

“You could see them coming up the mountain, right there at the foot of our driveway,” she said. “We saw homes on our left totally engulfed in flames."

They drove through it until they couldn’t any longer.

"We took off, and left the car and went running down the mountain," Conner said. "It was truly a firestorm, it was blowing fire in the air everywhere. I remember my daughter said, 'Don’t look back, whatever you do, don’t look back.'"

Conner and her daughter were convinced they were not getting out.

“The people we would never get to see again, that this was it,” she said.

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Firefighters eventually found them.

Conner said she lost her dream home but she realized a lot of people are worse off.

“There are people up there that don’t have anything at all and are doing a lot, lot worse than us,” she said.

She said she is thankful she answered her builder's call.

Conner said she got an alert from her home security system that her house was on fire three minutes after he called.

Cox Media Group