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The Highway 82 Georgia wildfire didn’t just take Ginger Hunter’s home. It wiped out every business her family had built on the same Brantley County property — a wedding chapel, a large reception hall, a bridal suite and a dress shop run by her daughter.
Now the family is being forced to start over.
“We have to start with a home for my family. I had no insurance on my house. I’m a single mom doing the best I can,” Hunter told News4JAX. “Once we’re not homeless, we’ll start on the businesses.”
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That statement lays bare the impossible prioritization when a single disaster takes out both a family’s home and its livelihood. The businesses that could fund a rebuild are the same businesses that burned.
With no insurance payout to bridge the gap, rebuilding the enterprises falls further down a timeline with no clear funding source.
The Highway 82 fire, first discovered on April 20, has burned roughly 5,000 acres and destroyed 54 structures as of Wednesday, April 23. Around 1,000 homes remain threatened, and the blaze is only 15% contained.
Georgia Wildfire Turned Years of Building Into Moments of Destruction
Hunter’s property shows what concentrated risk looks like for a family operation. The wedding chapel, reception hall, bridal suite and her daughter’s dress shop all occupied the same site. One fire took out an entire business built over years.
“We saw the flames behind the chapel and knew we only had moments,” Hunter told the outlet.
One clip of the fire, shared by Raigan Bullard, shows the scale of the flames and how poor the air quality was in the area. At the end of the clip, viewers see a puff of black smoke. According to Hunter, that puff was her house going up in flames.
The destruction extended well beyond the businesses. Hunter’s family lost vehicles and irreplaceable belongings.
“We lost my wedding dress, my mom’s wedding dress, my daughter’s wedding dress,” Hunter told the outlet. “My son is a senior in high school. His prom is Saturday. My mom was able to buy him an outfit. He lost his vehicle.”
Several of her loved ones have been displaced. Multiple pets are unaccounted for.
“My mind still can’t comprehend how in one moment life is happening, and instantly life looks different,” she added.
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No deaths have been reported. Despite the losses and ongoing uncertainty, Hunter finds comfort in the fact her family made it out alive.
“I will be very honest with you,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said, per News4JAX. “It’s a miracle that we have not had any lives lost.”
Gov. Brian Kemp declared a State of Emergency covering 91 counties in the lower portion of Georgia. The Georgia National Guard, air resources and Guardsmen have been deployed. The southern half of the state is under a 30-day burn ban — a first in the Georgia Forestry Commission’s history.
For Hunter, the path forward starts with finding a home for her family. The businesses — years of work on a single property — will have to wait.
