They say no good deed goes unpunished.

And that’s exactly how this Cumberland County man is feeling, after a fire destroyed his home.

Richard Lunsford was one of the first ones to arrive at the Crossville Red Cross shelter, after his neighborhood was evacuated the night before last month’s ice storm.

While he was there he helped drive people to doctor’s appointments or to do errands.

But one night, he got the call no one wants to hear.

“‘You need to get out here, your house is on fire,'” Lunsford says. “I said, ‘is it gone?’ he said ‘yeah.”

He lives in an RV on Lake Tansi, in a quite retirement community.

“Nice neighborhood with a lake and all that, it’s like a little dream home,” he says.

Lunsford just moved here last summer with his girlfriend Rebecca Chamberlain.

“It was an older house, we gutted it out, so to speak,” he says.

They dumped thousands of dollars into the home fixing it up.

“All new furniture, appliances, linens. All of it was new,” he says.

The Cumberland County Fire Department says it started on the porch with a propane heater that was accidentally left on.

The couple was in the process of getting insurance. But at the time of the fire they hadn’t completed the deal. Everything inside the RV was destroyed. The only thing they were able to save was a Bible.

“I wasn’t ready for what to expect,” Lunsford says.

They’re still in shock. And still trying to figure out how they’ll pay someone to haul off the debris.

“It was really cute,” Chamberlain says. “It was, it was really cute. And now it’s gone.”

They’re not sure where to turn next.

“We’d appreciate any help we can get,” Lunsford says.

They’ve been staying at a hotel the last few days but they don’t have enough money to stay any longer. They’re working with a couple of agencies to try to get some long-term help. But they say they might be sleeping in their car until they can figure it all out. (WVLT-TV)