DeRossette family counts their blessings after devastating fire

Last updated: June 12, 2026

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Lucy and Tim DeRossette lost their family home after a devastating fire. Today, they are counting their blessings.

“We are blessed and grateful. You know, it takes time for these things to sink in,” said Lucy DeRossette, a local educator for 31 years. “We are humbled that so many people have reached out. I don’t think I quite understood the enormity of it. It was just a house fire.”

“We are so grateful it didn’t happen two hours later. We wouldn’t be here today. We have a lot to be thankful for.”

Reflecting on the damage, Tim DeRossette said, “Everything can be replaced. Everything is temporary; this is just temporary. We got out with our lives and our dog, and we’ve had so much love and support.”

Lucy chimed in, “This morning, everyone driving to work stopped. They all stopped and wanted to get out and hug us.”

“We’ve had a lot of love and blessings from family, from my girls, and a lot of memories happened in that house,” said Tim.

When Tim discovered the fire, he and Lucy evacuated the home, both shoeless, with Tim in his underwear. “I put on my shorts in the street.” A neighbor gave Tim some shoes to wear, and “I put on fireman shoes,” giggled Lucy.

Tim said, “We had so many people show up with water, with shoes, and everything. We couldn’t really take in the scope of everything that was happening. By then, there were three or four fire trucks that got here.”

Tim went on to say, “When they got here, they worked. They did what they were supposed to do, and for that I am grateful.”

When firefighters arrived, the fire had already spread into the walls and, from there, shot into the home’s attic. They fought the blaze for over an hour and remained for several hours afterward, putting out hotspots and knocking down rekindled flames from the wooden structure.

“Last night, all I said to Tim was, …I had Christmas Cards made since Mary Quinn and Kay Kay’s first year, they both were in their infancy, and we took a Christmas Card picture. Every year we’ve taken a Christmas Card picture, and I get it framed and hang it on the wall. I kept saying to Tim, all I care about is the pictures of our kids, and at the end, a fireman came out with all those Christmas Card pictures. How did he know?!”

The DeRossettes spent the night at a local hotel. This morning, they returned to the home to gather belongings, but they spent most of the morning getting hugs from neighbors, friends, and people driving down Cherry Street.

“We had this one girl that went to WalMart this morning, she bought us all our toiletries, a couple of outfits,” gushed Tim. Lucy interjected, “It was more than a couple; you haven’t seen it all. My tennis shoes? Walmart. She got us some reader glasses. Toothpaste, shaving cream…”

“We have people wanting to send us money and stuff, I tell them look; send it to somebody that needs it. We’re going to be just fine. God has more than blessed us,” said Tim.

“We’re just really grateful; it could have been really bad.”

Lucy and Tim wanted to say to the community who has shown them so much love and support, “Thank you. Thank you for your outpouring of love. Every little text, every call. I might not have answered the phone because I was on the phone with somebody else. There were so many texts, so much stuff on Facebook. We haven’t even looked at all of it; we’re just grateful. Even people from out of town, ‘come stay with us.”

“We live in one of the most awesome towns in Mississippi. God is good. We love this town, we love its people, and it’s true what they say, there are more givers than takers.”