Woman Burned In Tent Fire

A fire at a downtown homeless camp left a woman with serious burns on Wednesday night. On 2/2/2022 at 10 PM, Chattanooga firefighters were dispatched on a call involving a burn victim at 1503 Middle Street. The victim is homeless and was brought to a restroom at the Chattanooga River Park on Middle Street. Responding firefighters helped HCEMS load the patient. The victim was burned in a tent up the river walk a few hundred feet away at a homeless encampment in a vacant lot beside the walk. She was transported to the hospital and firefighters proceeded to the tent to extinguish what remained of the fire. The cause of the incident is under investigation. The victim sustained burns to 15% of her body, including her back, the back of her arms and both feet. Her burns were severe enough for her to be sent to a burn unit in Georgia for further treatment. The victim indicated to investigators that she was startin a warming fire in her tent at the time of the incident. The fire quickly got away from her and spread throughout the tent, leaving her with burns and destroying hr belongings and her home.