2-29-20, 3-1-20 More Fires At Standard Coosa Thatcher Building

For the second time in recent months, the Chattanooga Fire Department was called to the long-abandoned Standard Coosa Thatcher building after receiving reports of smoke in the area of the old textile mill.

Around 10:30 PM Saturday night, multiple units responded to S Watkins Street and found heavy smoke coming from the top floor of the structure.

Crews spent hours pouring water into the building from the outside because the former plant is unsafe to enter.

Shortly before 2 AM, firefighters were able to put out the remaining bits of fire on the first floor.

Ultimately, it took six units approximately four hours to extinguish the fire due to the dangerous condition of the building.

Responding fire officials believe that the blaze was started by homeless people who made a warming fire inside the vacant structure.

There were no injuries.

Then, only hours after leaving the scene of the fire at the Standard Coosa Thatcher building on South Watkins Street early Sunday morning, the Chattanooga Fire Department was called back to the abandoned structure.

Just after 9 AM Sunday, we received reports of smoke coming from the building.

Crews did an assessment when they got there and an interior attack was conducted to locate source of the fire.

Several small fires were found in the basement next to an elevator shaft that acted as a chimney, pushing smoke through the top floor windows of the old textile mill.

Twenty firefighters worked to extinguish all of the fires which contained rubbish from inside the warehouse (wood, parts of the caved in ceiling, etc.)

No one was found inside the building. No injuries were reported. A fire investigator was called to the scene.

Officials believe the second weekend fire is separate from the blaze firefighters worked Satruday night.

On December 12, 2019, CFD was called to the old mill and found a stack of pallets and old doors burning on the second floor. Crews worked quickly to get that fire extinguished.

Back in July of 2016, our crews battled a second alarm fire at the textile building. Flames could be seen from miles away. It took 40 firefighters several hours to get the fire contained and a lot longer to get all of the hot spots out.