Occupants grateful northshore apartment fire not deadly
Courtesy: CFD
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- “At about 2:30 last night, I received a text that said that the parking garage was on fire.”
For residents and business owners such as Dawson Bailey of the Portuguese and Mediterranean restaurant Bela Lisboa at 417 Frazier Avenue, much will need to be cleaned up following Friday morning’s fire.
Chattanooga firefighters were called to the apartment complex shortly after 1:30 Friday morning.
They say the fire began underneath the complex inside of a parking garage.
The fire necessitated the rescue of seven people, who were trapped due to the smoke.
Five of them were treated for minor smoke inhalation.
Bailey said, “It burnt a lot of the plumbing, pipes, water, the electricity is burnt out, so we have a lot of water damage, smoke, odor from the smoke.
He described what this fire means for his business, which has been at the Frazier Avenue location for over six year.
Bailey said, “A lot of our food is ruined so we have to throw away the food because we can’t store the food.”
However, he says the damage to his business is tame compared to some of the other business and residential units, as he says most residents have relocated for the time being.
Bailey said, “The bridal shop I think got the worst of it. They have very expensive dresses that I think got a lot of smoke damage and water damage.”
While the Chattanooga Fire Department has not said what the official cause of the fire was, discussions with other residents he says has yielded one possibility.
Bailey said, “When I first arrived and I asked what the cause was, I was told by one of the residents it was possibly one of the electric cars they had plugged in downstairs for charging… I’m not sure, I know there is a couple of electric cars that are down there, but I’m not sure which one would have been the cause of the fire.”
He is thankful for the work of firefighters.
Bailey said, “For it being two in the morning they definitely got it out quick.”
He expects the restaurant to be closed for weeks until the complex’s infrastructure is repaired.
