photo by CFD
Chattanooga firefighters made a daring rescue on Labor Day as they arrived on the scene of a second alarm apartment fire.
At 8:51 a.m., units responded to 1112 Grove St. and they learned that there could be people trapped inside. Heavy smoke was showing from one of the buildings in the large apartment complex on arrival and rescue mode was started to search for occupants.
Firefighters immediately spotted a woman hanging out of a second floor window yelling and screaming for help. They quickly grabbed a ground ladder, put it up to the window and got her down.
As fire attack was launched, other personnel began searching the rest of the apartments. No one else was found.
Fire was coming out of the windows of a ground floor apartment and smoke was billowing out of the rest of the structure. Crews attempted an interior attack with multiple hand lines, but once the fire broke though the roof, firefighters were pulled out of the building for safety reasons.
Once defensive efforts knocked the fire down considerably, personnel went back inside to finish extinguishing the flames. Then hot spots were monitored.
The entire apartment building (eight units) was impacted by the fire. Half of the building was destroyed and the other half sustained smoke and water damage.
The Red Cross was contacted to assist residents. The woman who was rescued out of the top floor window was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries. There were no other reported injuries.
Multiple Red Shift companies responded to the scene, along with CPD, Hamilton County EMS, EPB, CFD Supply, Chattanooga-Hamilton Rescue’s Rehabilitation Unit and Hamilton County 911’s Incident Dispatch Unit.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Those in command of the large-scale response commended crews for their hard work and for getting the fire out quickly.
“Great job by everybody involved,” said Battalion Chief Ashley May. “We had good crew integrity and everyone was effective in their roles. Thank you to Chattanooga Police as well for the support and assistance they provided on the scene, especially when we were making a rescue and setting up firefighting operations. This was a big fire and we all worked together.”
photo by CFD