Trace Adkins and his family lost their home to a fire on June 4, 2011, but they actually considered themselves lucky. The singer and his then-wife, Rhonda, were just thankful that their children all made it out of the house safely before fire consumed their home.

Adkins was away on business at the time of the fire, which broke out at the family’s residence in the upscale Nashville suburb of Brentwood while the couple’s three daughters were at home under the care of a nanny, just before 4PM. The fire began in the garage after an electrical short, and their nanny was able to get them out of the house safely before the blaze spread to the rest of the house, which it ultimately devoured.

Adkins’ close friend Blake Shelton lived right up the street at the time of the incident, and he ended up being the one to inform Adkins of the blaze by leaving him a concerned voicemail while Adkins was on a flight to Alaska.

“Blake Shelton, I don’t even know if he knows it, but Blake was the one that told him the house burned down,” Rhonda Adkins told Nashville’s WSMV. “Because when Trace landed, that was the first message he got: ‘Trace, I can see into your house! What’s going on?'”

Adkins lost most of his career memorabilia in the fire as well as the family’s 5,000-square-foot home, but Rhonda told reporters she was happy the outcome wasn’t worse.

“You can replace things, not people. I’m just glad that my children are safe,” she told Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper (quote via Fox News).

Adkins’ team later posted a statement to his website, writing, “Trace wishes to express his gratitude for the immediate response of the Brentwood Fire Department and is humbled by the outpouring of concern from friends and fans.”

Sterling Whitaker is a Senior Writer and Senior Editor for Taste of Country. He focuses on celebrity real estate, as well as coverage of Yellowstone and related shows like 1883 and 1923. He’s interviewed cast members including Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, Sam Elliott and Harrison Ford, and Whitaker is also known for his in-depth interviews with country legends including Don Henley, Rodney Crowell, Trace Adkins, Ronnie Milsap, Ricky Skaggs and more.