Firefighters begin the process of gathering their equipment after quickly putting out an apartment fire and saving the rest of the building
photo by Bruce Garner
A Chattanooga man was seriously injured in an apartment fire Tuesday night. The Chattanooga Fire Department received the alarm around 7:15 p.m. and responded to Evergreen Apartments at 1507 Hickory Valley Road with six fire companies.
Captain Terri Roshell with Quint 8 said light smoke was showing from the two-story apartment building when her fire truck arrived on the scene.
As Captain Roshell and her firefighters approached the building, the light smoke quickly turned darker. They located the fire in Apartment E-28 on the ground floor, and as they got closer, they spotted an elderly man collapsed on the ground next to his front door.
Captain Roshell said she grabbed the man on the ground and dragged him a safe distance away from the apartment that was on fire. The man showed visible burns to his upper body.
Upon being informed that there was a working fire with injuries, Battalion Chief Jeff Eldridge, the incident commander, called for a second alarm response to bring in additional firefighters and equipment. As additional firefighters began to arrive on the scene, flames broke through a back window in the apartment. The firefighters with Quint 8 took a hand-held hoseline and went to the back window to begin fire suppression. When that fire was knocked down, firefighters were then able to enter through the front door and finish extinguishing the fire. With the fire being quickly extinguished, Chief Eldridge cancelled the second alarm.
The burn victim was immediately transported by Hamilton County EMS to Erlanger Medical Center, where his condition was being assessed. The fire damage was contained to the one apartment unit that was on fire, with damages estimated at $60,000 on the structure and $20,000 for contents. The other seven apartment units in that building were spared any serious damage.
Additional details are still being obtained, but the fire displaced the burn victim and a woman. Volunteers with the American Red Cross were called in to provide assistance to the two victims. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Firefighters help the elderly woman displaced by the fire to an office in the complex to get her out of the cold
photo by Bruce Garner