FRANKLIN, Tenn. — A Franklin neighborhood is safe after large rocks falling from the sky, crashed through homes and into yards.
“This is unbelievable. Like how does something like this happen?” thought homeowner Stanley Berry after seeing his guest bedroom with a massive hole in the roof and ceiling.
Berry says the blast happened just before noon Thursday as he was downstairs. He thought the sheetrock falling just from the seismic activity but then saw the large rock, split into three pieces across the room.
“It was a sheer disbelief. It was a thought of how a company could be so negligent that they would put the residents of this community at risk,” says Berry.
He describes his development as very active, with kids outside playing and people walking their dogs. So he knows everyone in the area is lucky the rocks fell in the spots they did. “It absolutely would have killed someone and you know the bigger piece of this too is not only the damage to these homes, because the homes can be fixed, [it’s] that it seems like there’s a disregard for the lives they put at risk.”
Berry says after the rock hit the Lockwood Glen Neighborhood, “original conversations were that, you know, there was negligence in regard to where they placed the blast mat.”
Then he reached out to the Department of Commerce and Insurance and the State Fire Marshal’s office, who were able to confirm “they did not use blast mats on the shot.”
“How do you not put a blast mat down when you detonate a charge? If they’ve had that kind of negligence, what reassurances can you give us that the other work that they’ve done back here is not going to end up leaving us impacted in the future?” says Berry.
Not only does he want to see more concern and remorse, he’d like to see a better answer for how his home will be fixed.
“They told me that they were going to make it whole, they said that they were going to come in and do the work, we’re going to make sure that you are satisfied, and we’re going to make sure like it never happened. And then conversations that I had with the same people this morning gave me the clear understanding that that is not what’s going to happen.” Berry continues,
“Their intent is to come in a repair the segments that were damaged right, which you would think is reasonable, however at the end of the day, if they only do that it’s going to leave a clear mark that the damage occurred, devaluing my property, devaluing my home and not leaving me satisfied.”
As someone that just moved into the home two weeks ago and is still unpacking, he wants the investment he just made with his family to be exactly what they bought.
“I would like to be the house to be repaired as though this never happened. I don’t want it to be a quick fix situation where they send in these restoration companies where they try to come by and say that they’ll be here on Monday to make the repairs and left in the situation where I have a constant reminder when I look up in my roof what happened.”