City mourns inspector, wife calls reports Tumlin returned to fire ‘untrue’
In the almost two weeks since Warrior Building Inspector Mike Tumlin was killed after a fire ravaged his Blount County home, many people across the area have reached out to talk about what Tumlin meant to them and what a loss it was to the community.
Warrior officials still seemed to be reeling from the loss at the council meeting Monday night, as they attempt to adjust to life without someone Mayor Johnny Ragland
called “the best building inspector and the best guy.”
Tumlin’s wife, Leigh and two children were in the home when the fire broke out, but managed to escape to safety.
Leigh said last week by phone that she and her children have been hurt by false information, including reports that Mike escaped with them, but returned to the house to fight the fire.
“My husband never came out of that house,” she said. “This has extremely upset me and my children during the worst possible time of our lives.”
State Fire Marshal Scott Pilgreen said his office, along with local authorities, are still investigating the cause of the fire and the circumstances surrounding the death, but could not comment on the specifics at this time.
“A lot of forensics is yet to be done,” Pilgreen said, explaining that is standard practice when there is a death related to a fire.
The final report will also be presented to a grand jury in Blount County, as is standard procedure with all deaths in the county, according to the district attorney’s off ice.
A report likely will not be released until after that grand jury, which would be sometime early next year.
Tumlin’s celebration of life was held at Crossroad’s Baptist Church in Warrior. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations be made to kulturecity.org to help children on the autism spectrum.
A fund for the family has been set up at Traditions Bank in Warrior in Mike Tumlin’s name.