January 4, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
A memorial service was held Sunday for a man who perished in a fire Christmas eve in the Blue Springs Community.
The funeral for 36 year old Garrett Randell Duggin of McMinnville took place at the Chapel of High’s Funeral Home in McMinnville.
Duggin was apparently staying in an outbuilding on Talley Road when it caught fire on the night of Christmas eve and spread to a house six feet away belonging to another individual.
DeKalb 911 received a call of a structure fire and dispatched members of the DeKalb County Fire Department at 9:15 p.m. Although county firefighters were on the scene within five minutes the outbuilding, already fully involved in flames, had collapsed. Fire crews were able to bring the blaze under control but the adjacent residence was extensively damaged.
Members of the Short Mountain Highway, Main Station, Blue Springs, and Belk stations responded along with DeKalb EMS and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.
After human remains were found in the rubble, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was notified and joined the Sheriff’s Department in the probe.
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
A welder at Smithport Cabinetry and member of the Baptist church, Duggin was the son of Gary Duggin and Melissa Bunch. He was married to Shanna Duggin of McMinnville, TN on October 16, 2001. He was preceded in death by grandmother, Ann Thomas; great-grandmother, Virginia Farless; paternal grandfather, Richard “Jack” Duggin; great-aunt, Lola Weir; and brother-in-law, Manuel Madewell, Jr.
In addition to wife and parents, he is survived by three children, Savanna, Sadie, and Garryn Duggin; step-father, Tim Bunch; step-mother, Rhonda Duggin; two sisters, Candace Long and Icie Boyd; two brothers, Justin Duggin and Colby Duggin; mother-in-law and father-in-law, Sandra and Manuel Madewell, Sr.; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Sandra and Michael Phillips; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Chris and Christie Madewell; brother-in-law, Jason Dwayne Madewell; niece and nephews, Kloee and Maverick Long and Aubree Boyd; several other nieces and nephews also survive.