News Releases

The Chattanooga Fire Department responded to a call for a person that had fallen 20 feet down into a trench just before noon today on the 12th Street side of the TVA Building.

The Chattanooga Fire Department responded to a fire in a school at Orchard Knob Middle School at 500 North Highland Park Avenue at 2:00 pm.

A fire broke out in a scrapyard shortly before 2:00 this afternoon, sending up a plume of thick, black smoke that could be seen from virtually any part of town. The Chattanooga Fire Department responded with four fire companies to Mill Direct International, located at 2100 Rossville Avenue. The firefighters quickly set up their aerials and using their master streams, poured hundreds of gallons of water per minute in an effort to get the blaze under control. The fire was intense. Firefighters said much of what was burning were petroleum-based products, such as rubber, foam and plastics.

Captain David Thompson Jr. with Squad 1 said the firefighters would suppress the fire as much as possible with large amounts of water, and then use heavy machinery from the scrapyard to remove layers of scrap from the burning pile.

The Chattanooga Fire Department's 9th annual Firefighters Against Hunger Food Drive for this year is history and the totals are in from the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.

A Chattanooga fire investigator has determined the likely cause of yesterday's house fire at 37 Agnes Avenue. Lt. Henry McElvain with the Fire Investigation Division said the residents were in the process of moving into the house and someone had placed boxes in front of a wall heater in the bathroom. Lt. McElvain believes it was cool enough for the wall heater to cycle on, and after the boxes got hot enough, a fire broke out. No one was in the home at the time, but a neighbor noticed smoke coming from the house and called 911.

Chattanooga firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the bathroom, but the rest of the house sustained some smoke and water damage. The dollar loss was estimated at $45,000. Volunteers with the American Red Cross of Southeast Tennessee were called in to provide assistance to the victims. How many people lived in the house is unknown.

Though it's early in the season to be offering this safety warning, residents should be aware of the potential dangers of portable heaters and wall heaters.

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