By Michaela Gordoni
Ben and Erin Napier were so excited to help their friends launch The Heirloom Hotel in their home town of Laurel, Mississippi, but then a tragic electrical fire left it in ruins just after the renovation was completed.
The series that shows the renovation before the fire, HOME TOWN: INN THIS TOGETHER, still aired last month. Its finale was May 31. The Napiers and the hotel owners got to show the complete restoration of the building ahead of the fire and the hotel’s opening day in the series, TV Insider reported.
Ben shared photos he took throughout the renovation process.
“Walking through that retail space full of our products with that same logo, seeing those signs go up on that beautiful building, and watching our staff show off the things they made is more than any dream I could’ve had,” he captioned the photos in a May 30 post. “For something to have started so small to reach this level is more than I ever expected.”
The finale shows footage right after the fire, including one of the owners crying as they watch two years of work fall to pieces. PEOPLE reported that it also shows Erin gasping and fighting back tears as she watches firefighters put out the blazes.
Ben says, “To come as far as we have, and then to have something like this… It is devastating. For Laurel, this hotel — it means a lot.”
Related: We Will Get to See Ben, Erin Napier’s Work on Hotel That Caught Fire
“Last nights episode was bittersweet,” Ben captioned a Monday, June 1, Instagram post. “Our friends worked so unbelievably hard, and we have never been more proud to be their friends. The fire shocked everyone. It has felt like a death of a loved one in the community.”
He said, “We don’t know what the future holds, but we know God holds us. Thanks for watching the biggest thing to happen in downtown Laurel in a long time.”
Not quite one year since the fire, the owners still wait for a completed insurance claim with Liberty Mutual.
On May 31, Erin shared a handwritten letter from an 11-year-old Laurel resident to Liberty Mutual’s CEO, Timothy M. Sweeney. He pleads for the company to finalize the claim and says, “This is your chance to prove Liberty Mutual is different.”
Erin wrote, “My dear friend, Mr. Amos Sledge, age 11, hopes @libertymutual hears his plea and does the right thing. So do I.”
And all of the Napiers’ HOME TOWN fans and the town of Laurel do too.
Read Next: Crew Behind HOME TOWN Hotel Spin-Off Update Fans Following Fire
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