On Saturday morning around 9:45am Coffee County Deputy Everette Mullins responded to a call of a trailer fire at 247 Ferrell’s Branch Road. When Mullins arrived, a Gary Foster advised the owner of the camper Clara Anderson was at 2730 Noah Road and needed medical attention. Coffee County EMS was called to Anderson’s location.
In his report Mullins says Foster told him that he was on his way to work and noticed smoke coming from the camper. Foster said he saw debris in the yard and didn’t think Anderson was at home, but he started to hear her cry. At this time Foster says he ran inside and pulled Anderson to safety. Foster received burns to his arms.
Mullins’ report goes on to say that after seeing that the camper was completely burned he went to check on Anderson. The deputy noticed Anderson, who is 91, had severe burns on her hands and her hair was singed.
When Coffee County EMS arrived they transported Anderson to North Coffee Elementary and she was airlifted to the Vanderbilt Hospital Burn Unit in Nashville.
Miss Anderson’s daughter told Deputy Mullins that she and her husband had just left the trailer a short time before receiving a call about the fire. She stated that they relit Anderson’s pilot light on the hot water heater before leaving to haul garbage.
Upon checking the camper, the North Coffee Volunteer Fire Department advised that it appeared there had been a small explosion in the camper. There was glass from the camper windows about 20′ from the camper were it landed. The deputy’s report says that it appeared that possibly the oxygen that Anderson uses or gas fumes ignited a short time after the pilot light was lit causing a small explosion.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says grants are available to help cities, civic organizations or other nonprofit agencies plant trees near streams.
A statement from the wildlife agency says $2,500 is available for each of Tennessee’s four regional Aquatic Habitat Protection projects. Seedlings must be purchased with the Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry and projects must be completed by June 30, 2016.
The TWRA is accepting proposals through Nov. 30.
Tree planting season in Tennessee runs from December through March.

The Tennessee Department of Correction says it has launched Operation Blackout, an annual initiative to protect trick-or-treaters from registered sex offenders.
A TDOC statement says probation parole officers have teamed up with local police to conduct random visits and compliance checks across the state to make sure that sex offenders are following strict guidelines for the Halloween season.
During the first night, officers checked on 300 sex offenders, which resulted in one arrest, one citation, and four violations. TDOC says it plans to check on 3,500 sex offenders statewide through Oct. 31.

Tennessee Promise recruiters are scrambling to attract 4,000 volunteer mentors to apply to become part of the scholarship program within the next four weeks.
News outlets are reporting that about 5,000 Tennessee adults have applied to be mentors statewide, leaving the program 4,000 mentors short of its 9,000-person goal with less than a month remaining before the Nov. 20 application deadline.
Tennessee Promise Executive Director Mike Krause says his focus will shift exclusively to mentors after students’ Nov. 2 application deadline.
Krause says he would rely on partnerships with employers such as AT&T Tennessee and Nissan to drive more participation in the mentor program.
Gov. Bill Haslam has pushed for the program to use more mentors in order for closer relationships to be established between mentors and students.