The Tamarcus Norman family escaped safely after their newly set up home caught fire early Sunday morning. Army Staff Sergeant Tamarcus Norman had just survived a year in Iraq and was trying to settle his family in a mobile home in Tignall when a smoke alarm woke the family early Sunday morning.

"We woke up," said his wife Shaneka, "and the whole back of the house was on fire." She, Norman's mother Linda, and six children aged 5 to 11 ran from the burning home and called 911 while Norman tried to save what he could of the home. Four of the children were the Normans' and two were friends.

When the smoke alarm went off, the oldest child, Tamarcus Jr., ran into the living room and saw the fire. He alerted the sleeping family, and everyone got out safely. "The children didn't even breathe any smoke," Shaneka said. "We got them right out of there and everybody was safe."

The family had only been in the home on West Wooten Street since Friday, and hadn't been able to get homeowner's insurance over the weekend, Shaneka said.

The Tignall Fire Department, led by Capt. Carl Jewell, responded with two engines and 14 fire fighters. Firemen stopped the fire from destroying the home, but the rear wall was heavily damaged and the home's ceiling voids and roof were damaged.

Chief Alan Poss said that an investigation showed that the fire was electrical, and had originated in an exterior wall cavity at the back of the home.

Norman, an Army E-6 with the 42nd Infantry Division out of Ft. Stewart, had just returned from a one-year combat tour in Iraq in January, and was trying to get his family settled in the six-year-old double-wide he'd purchased.

After the fire damaged their home, the Norman family has had to go back to Savannah and try to cope with the near disaster.

Although they have family and church family to help, the Normans say they could use some real help in repairing the fire damage to their home. All the family's furniture and clothes are smoke damaged, too.

"I don't know what we're going to do as far as getting it fixed," Shaneka said. "We sure could use some help."