Ben and Erin Napier have been two of HGTV’s brightest stars for many years now, and with good reason. The duo, who saw Home Town Season 9 hit the 2025 TV schedule, are known for not just bringing old homes and businesses back from the brink of obscurity, but doing so in a way that pays tribute to the past and helps the community. Filming for one of the show’s many spinoffs, however, ended in tragedy not long ago, and the Napiers have finally opened up about it.
What Tragedy Happened With A Recent Home Town Spinoff And What Do Ben And Erin Napier Say About It Now?
It’s no secret that Ben and Erin Napier basically work nearly non-stop to preserve the history of their Home Town of Laurel, Mississippi by updating every home and retail property they can, and this has sometimes included renovations they spearhead for friends. So, when their buddies asked them to help fix up their boutique hotel in the downtown area, they said yes and the work was captured for an upcoming series, Home Town: Inn This Together.
Unfortunately, the week after renovations were completed, Erin revealed on Instagram that the hotel caught on fire, before they were even able to open to the public. At the time, it was unclear if the proposed show would be able to air at some point, but while speaking with USA Today about the early 2026 TV premiere of Home Town Season 10, Ben revealed that Inn This Together will also hit the schedule some time “later” in the year. Erin noted of their three friends, Mallorie and Jim Rasberry and Joshua Nowell (who’ve all been seen on the original show), who own the hotel:
This was their baby. To watch them give their all − and I really mean give their all to create this masterpiece − and then to watch it burn together, was devastating.
I can only imagine. There is only one time I can remember, offhand, that a renovation was destroyed on the parent series (I believe a hurricane was to blame that time), so this is definitely a sad and odd occurrence. Pretty much everyone who’s bought a house knows the kind of anticipation that goes into just being able to move in, so when you deal with weeks or months of renovation to finally have your dream home or business, that ups the stakes dramatically. To finish the process and then have a fire eliminate all that hard work would be understandably “devastating” for anyone.
However, the trio are sticking with it, and still hoping to be able to open their hotel. Erin continued:
They're still somehow finding a way to keep looking at the next steps and [asking], ‘Where do we go from here?’ And I don't know where they're going to go, yet. But, man, I'm proud of them. I think − even though it didn't go the way we all were expecting and hoping and excited about − if you want to see human endurance and the spirit of ‘we can do hard things,’ it is going to be that hotel series.
My guess is that more filming will be done to show the effects of the fire and how the owners are trying to work through the damage. I can only imagine that the Napiers will be right there to help them along, and I can’t wait to see the end result.
