James Silby Went Back Into His Room
posted December 22, 2005
Fire claimed the life of a Chattanooga man Thursday morning at Patton Towers on 11th Street.
The fire broke out shortly after 10:00 a.m. Christina Mack, assistant manager at Patton Towers, said that when the smoke alarm activated, she went to the second floor to investigate. When she got to Apartment 201 and knocked on the door, the resident opened the door and black smoke poured out through the door.
Ms. Mack said she grabbed the man and pulled him out into the hallway. At the time, she said he was talking and appeared to be uninjured. She then ran down the hall to get a fire extinguisher. When she returned, she said the man had gone back into his smoke-filled apartment. Ms. Mack said she tried to go in and get him, but the smoke was too intense. No one knows why the victim went back in, but he never came back out.
Chattanooga firefighters received the alarm at 10:15 a.m. and responded with several fire companies. When fire was confirmed on the second floor, Battalion Chief Mike Knox called for a second alarm response to bring in additional firefighters and equipment. Chief Knox said that when the firefighters entered Apartment 201, they found a relatively small fire inside, which they quickly put out with portable fire extinguishers. Moments later, they found the victim on the floor in the living room.
The firefighters pulled the lifeless victim out into the hallway, and immediately began administering CPR. The firefighters carried the victim out to the street, where paramedics with Hamilton County EMS were waiting. The paramedics continued to work on the victim on the way to Erlanger Medical Center, but the victim was pronounced dead on arrival.
The victim has since been identified as James Silby, 59. A doctor at Erlanger confirmed that the victim died from smoke inhalation. The victim also had second and third degree burns to his head, shoulders and forearms.
Senior Firefighter Henry McElvain with the Fire Investigation Division said the cause of this fatal fire appears to be accidental, most likely from careless smoking in bed. Investigator McElvain said most of the fire damage was in the bedroom.
While the fire damage was contained to the one apartment unit, the sprinkler system did cause some water damage to a few adjacent apartments. Residents on the second floor were evacuated as a precaution, but Chief Knox said no additional evacuations were necessary since the fire was contained so quickly and the smoke didn’t move beyond the second floor. Nevertheless, many residents evacuated from the building on their own.
Since it was fairly cold outside, Chief Knox requested three CARTA buses, which were used as temporary shelters for those residents needing to get out of the cold. The Red Cross was called in to assist the victims, but the manager at Patton Towers said they had enough vacant apartments to replace those that had water damage.
This will be the seventh fire-related fatality for the year. Just last month, on Nov. 23, a mother and her two young daughters perished in a house fire at 7120 Lee Highway.
While firefighters were busy handling this tragedy, several residents at Patton Towers informed firefighters that they tried to exit through a back door, but it had been locked with a chain. While investigators do not believe the chained exit had any connection with the fire fatality on the second floor, representatives from the Fire Marshal’s office said they take those complaints seriously and would be investigating the matter immediately.
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