Buildings on Hippie Hill smoke after a fire hit the property April 13, 2012
The omnivorous diet of two separate fires have left pain and triumph in the lives of two thriving music and arts communities over the past month. In order to recover, the communities themselves have become stronger than ever with the help of friends and family to rebuild.
When the home of MTSU alumni and Tour de Fun creator Tyler Walker experienced fire damage in the early morning hours of March 6, the music and small business community united to give back. Since then, donations have poured in over PayPal and at local venues to support the victims, one of which is still recovering.
The other community, a campground/commune known as Hippie Hill located in Christiana, experienced fire damages just weeks after the fire in East Nashville. The cooking facilities and shower system were destroyed by a fire that has left a community that relies on these utilities to provide nourishment to those who need it in a conundrum.
But the show must go on.
What started as a single benefit show for the East Nashville fire expanded into a two-day mini-festival at 3 Brother’s Deli & Brewhouse and a third night following at a residential house near the MTSU campus.
Social networks have become a key into gaining momentum to support those effected.
“We confirmed three bands before we made the Facebook event page public, and once that happened, the response was unbelievable,” said Carter Hays, who operates VCR, a local booking agency. The event page had over 100 people signed up to attend in only a few hours. “We had so many bands contact us wanting to support, that we decided to add a second night, which 3 Brothers conveniently had available.”
Only two years ago, 3 Brothers Deli received fire damage itself when the medical supply store next door caught fire, destroying much of the then 3-month-old restaurant’s kitchen. In the wake of the fire, businesses around the Murfreesboro square opened their doors to support the reconstruction process.
“After closing our doors for seven months, the community has really shown their support since we have re-opened,” said 3 Brother’s owner Eric Fortney.
Travelers, wanderers, seekers of spiritual salvation and the bored have passed over Hippie Hill, greeted with food, wisdom and a clean place to stay. The rebuilding will be arduous, and with support flowing in over social networks to lend hands, good spirits and craftsmanship, the road to full recovery will be one of cooperation and an opportunity for rethinking past designs, material needs and utilization to build a new kitchen.
Fire creates as much as it destroys. Replenishes what it subtracts. Nurtures what it consumes. During this past month, the fires that ignited loss and pain reminded residents that without friends and family after tragedy, life is a matter of wading through the ashes.
Both of these communities rely on their members and supporters. To belong is to give back, and both Hippie Hill and those effected by the East Nashville fire have discovered strength and wisdom in the values of cooperation and equality for all. Sustainable in desire for inclusion and to inspire, there is no amount of destruction that will take an ideal down without increasing this resolve.
The fire on Hippie Hill was the resut of gross negligence on the part of it’s propritor Tom Maddox. How do I know? Because I lived on Hippie Hill for six months prior to the fire, next door to the origin of the blaze, was one of the first persons on the scene and the person who called 911 and summoned the fire Department.
The fire was the result of heavy drinking and partying as usual. The kid who started the blaze has passed out drunk after starting a fire on a woodstove that had cardboard and kindling piled up on and around the stove. I awoke to his cries and found him in a paralyzed state standing before the fire grasping his hair and crying out “its all my fault!. I don’t even think he looked 21 yet.
The fire was well engulfed and two persons has barely escaped death as they were passed out drunk and had to be drug out of the blazing kitchen. I immediately raced for the water bins only to find them empty. I searched for fire extinguishers but there were none to be found. I then called 911 but the dispacher sent firemen from Las Cassas to Christiana and it took them over an hour to arrive. By them every structure in the vicinity burned to the ground while the shocked residents watched helplessly, unable and without the means to fight the raging inferno. It was a miracle that no one was killed.
Tom Maddox aka “Hippie” had also gotten drunk that night and as a result he slept through the excruciating cries for help, screams, barking dogs, smashing glass and explosions, even though his trailer was but a hundred feet away. By the time he was awoke there was little he could do but beg for a fire extinguisher in vain from a sole police officer on the scene, as he had none of his own to use.
The man who exercises total control over everything on the hill was quick to blame everyone and everything but himself. Yet before the sun had even risen or the smoke cleared they were on the phone and computer agressively begging for high dollar donations.
Seeing that the fire could and should have been prevented or at least extingished with with the proper resources onhand it seems that the fire was not a disaster but the inevitable result of gross negligence.
Now many months and donations later still no fire water or extinguisher onhand. So why are people wanting to donate? Why will they avoid disaster when it only increases the only means of income they gernerate which is to promote themselves and others around them as perpetual charity cases?
I can understand how in the Rutheford County Murfreesboro area a music publication might be hard up for material and venues to promote however I do not think the unbias reporting of these events helps anyone. If anything I think that you are doing the residents of Hippie Hill a great disservice. By failing to address the gross negligence, lack of planning and blatant fire code violations as well as the perpetual drunken behaviour that created the blaze while simotaneously being a cheerleader to promote revenues for the negligent party as a result of the negligence you are endangering the lives of the next victims of the next inevitable disaster on Hippie Hill.
Like the signs that ask you not to give to panhandlers so that they might then instead of relying for the consistent handout go find solutions for their needs I think Hippie Hill needs to address the causes of these disasters and chronic povery on itd own meri.
When donations are used to re-up the drug business and keep the booze flowing and everything except help kids thay where the real iorny lies. These people are not ever going to become responsible.
The way things seem due to gross negligence and drunken the managmant of hippie hill only a matter of time before someone gets badly maimed or even killed on Hippie Hill. And if that does hapeen know a certain author with rose tinted glasses who may not sleep at night. How about a little objecing reporting of some facts?
Like a ship sailed by a stubborn drunk for a captain both the captain and the crew are doomed.
Pl
Comment July 31, 2012 @ 7:07 am