Home Depot repairs Oklahoma vet’s burned down garage for free

EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) – An Oklahoma Army veteran used his garage as a workshop, building thousands of dollars worth of furniture for fellow veterans and programs to help with PTSD.

But when his garage burned down, his good deeds came to a halt.

On Tuesday, however, came another good deed – this one from a team of volunteers from Home Depot, who went to his Edmond home to rebuild his garage for free.

“I had a fire, a piece of my equipment shorted, and it started a garage fire and basically lost my garage,” Army Veteran William Wilson said.

Video at the top of this story shows the culprit – a large piece of machinery that Wilson used for woodworking.

Wilson has used his skills over the years to build $15,000 worth of furniture to benefit veterans programs with “Warriors for Freedom.”

Wilson showed off a garage bar that a neighbor bought, which even lights up!

“12 gallons of epoxy,” Wilson said, and lots of hard work went into the work of art.

“I’m with a scuba program with Warriors for Freedom, we get veterans scuba-certified and they scuba dive as an alternative therapy method for PTSD. This project alone helped certify about ten veterans,” Wilson said.

When Home Depot heard about Wilson’s fire, they sent out their volunteer group “Team Depot,” to get his garage of good deeds up and running again.

The team replaced attic decking, drywall, doors, garage doors, and painting.

“I always appreciate the opportunity to help out anyone who’s served, appreciate it like no other. So, just being out here, being able to help out a good guy like will, it’s just great. Love the opportunity,” said Christian Bagby, with Home Depot in Edmond.

The Home Depot Foundation has renovated the homes of 50,000 of our nation’s heroes over the years, and now Wilson is one of them.

“It’s awesome. It’s a great, great thing.”

Wilson’s fellow members of Warriors for Freedom also helped with the renovation. Their foundation relies on donations to provide veterans with programs like scuba diving, golfing, fishing and hunting to help prevent veteran PTSD and suicides.

For more information on Warriors for Freedom, click here.