Brookhaven family loses everything in Wednesday house fire

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (WLBT) - A Brookhaven family is still trying to grapple with their new reality after a house fire earlier this week took away almost everything they owned.

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon for the Diffrient-Jackson family in Lincoln County when, all of a sudden, they got a phone call they never would have expected.

“I was over at my brother’s house when I got a phone call from my other son, saying that my home was on fire. They were concerned that someone was inside the house. When I came up here, the house was completely engulfed in smoke,” Darryl Jackson, the owner of the home, explained.

Jackson says everyone in his family was out of the house that afternoon. His two daughters were at school, his wife, Robin Diffrient, was at the dentist, and he was at his brother’s place.

“The Loyd Star Volunteer Fire Department did all they could. They worked on it, I know, from when I got here a little after 12 until about 8 o’clock at night. They were working hard trying to put it out, but it just seemed to keep burning,” Jackson explained.

When Diffrient saw her home up in flames, she says she began thinking about all the things you can’t put a price on.

“I had a picture that my brother had given me that belonged to my mother that hung in our childhood home forever. I was so proud when he gave it to me. Of course, now it’s gone. You know, little things like that you can’t ever replace,” Diffrient said.

But when the community heard about the family’s loss, Jackson says they quickly sprung to action.

“Everybody has been very helpful, and everybody keeps asking if they can help us. We appreciate everything that’s been done,” Jackson said.

“The school got the word out and they brought them [my daughters] clothes and even some shirts with the school’s name on them,” Diffrient said.

According to the family, the cause of the fire is still unknown at this time.

Since Wednesday, they’ve been staying in a hotel, thanks to their insurance company, and two of their sons set up a GoFundMe to help move forward.

“I cried, and I was worried about my wife and things like that, but I told myself, it’s just stuff. We can replace stuff. At least nobody was hurt,” Jackson said.

If you’d like to donate and help this family recover, click here for their GoFundMe.

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