Great Stop On Westrock Fire

A phenomenal response by Chattanooga firefighters prevented a second alarm fire from spreading through a massive industrial building.

The call came out at 4:30 PM Sunday to the WestRock facility on Compress Street off Manufacturers Road. WestRock makes cardboard boxes- potential fuel for a fire. Responding crews could see a lot of smoke coming from the plant and knew they were dealing with an active fire.

They found heavy flames coming from a hot air fan and exhaust vent. The fire traveled though the structure inside the vent into other parts of the building.

Firefighters made an exterior attack on the fan and the vent and launched an interior attack on the ductwork. They were able to get a portion of the fire knocked down within 15 minutes. From there, they focused on making access to the fire inside the ductwork to ensure that all hot spots were fully extinguished. Multiple companies were on the scene for several hours.

“Everyone did an incredible job when they got on scene and they made a fast attack. I can’t say enough about the efforts by our crews today. This could have been much worse, but they knew what to do and got the job done,” said Battalion Chief Terry Knowles, incident commander.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. There were no injuries. There were several employees who were still inside the building when firefighters arrived. They were working to shut down power to the machinery. They all made it out safely.

Engine 12, Quint 1, Ladder 1, Squad 1, Squad 20, Quint 17, Engine 9, Quint 16, Ladder 5, Battalion 1, Battalion 2, Battalion 3 (Green Shift), HCEMS, CPD, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue’s Support Services Unit, Hamilton County 911 IDU responded. Mutual Aid provided coverage at several of our fire halls. We appreciate their help, as well as the assistance we received from WestRock’s personnel.

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