Chattanooga firefighters respond to Mountain Creek Apt fire

Chattanooga, Tenn. — Quick work by Chattanooga firefighters saved most of an apartment building early this afternoon. The Chattanooga Fire Department received the alarm shortly after noon today and responded to Radius Mountain Creek Apartments at 936 Mountain Creek Road with six fire companies. Captain Mose Duckett with Quint 17 said light smoke was showing when the first firefighters arrived on the scene. The smoke was coming from two units on one end of the the two-story building that contained six townhomes. As a precaution, Captain Duckett called for a second alarm response to bring in six additional fire companies.

The firefighters took in hand-held hoselines and worked to put the fire out. However, the fire had penetrated into the attic, causing concern that the flames might spread across the entire roof of the building. To keep that from happening, Captain Duckett said the firefighters cut a long ventilation hole on the roof known as a “trench cut.” The trench cut acts as a fire break on the roof and allows firefighters access to where the fire is in the attic. The result was the fire being stopped at the two units already damaged by the fire. No injuries were reported. The other four townhomes appeared to be undamaged. The dollar loss was estimated at around $120,000.

One townhome was rented, but the residents were not home at the time of the fire. The other townhome was vacant, but plumbers were reportedly inside making repairs when the fire started. The lead fire investigator says the cause of the fire appears to be accidental, though what exactly sparked the blaze remains undetermined.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – No one was hurt when a fire did damage to an apartment at the Radius Mountain Creek Luxury Apartments this afternoon.

In one of several blazes they responded to today, Chattanooga firefighters arrived quickly and began opening up the building to get rid of heavy black smoke.

UTC students Conner Walker and two roommates were among the residents forced out.

“I started smelling a little smoke, coming from the other apartment and I just went out to see what it was, and I saw there was some big smoke, flames, not really flames but just smoke just coming uh towards our apartment and it started coming through our outlets, and uh it just started filling up our place with a lot of smoke.”

Walker says he doesn’t know how long it will be until he can return to check for damage.

No injuries were reported and there’s no estimate of damage.

On scene of fire at Radius Apts on Mtn Creek Rd. Fire’s out. Contained to 2 units. No injuries. #ChattFire pic.twitter.com/W8L1Ifz92B

— Chattanooga FireDept (@ChattFireDept) March 29, 2017

*Photo by Bruce Garner