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By Bruce Garner
Shortly after 11:00 o’clock Saturday night, March 24, 2019,, Chattanooga (TN) firefighters responded to a report of a house fire on Dodson Avenue. Firefighters with Engine 5 were the first on the scene. Captain Joey Smith said two houses located at 610 and 612 Dodson Avenue were both engulfed in flames on the backside of the structures, and the flames were spreading quickly.
Captain Smith said they took handheld hoselines and made entry into one of the houses to look for victims and begin putting the fire out, but by then, flames had broken through the roof and they were ordered out of the structure for their own safety. A second alarm was requested to bring in additional firefighters and equipment.
Battalion Chief Ashley May said the firefighters fought the fire defensively, using handheld hoselines and master streams from aerials above to keep the fire from spreading any further. Chief May said it took 40 firefighters roughly an hour to get the blaze under control. No one was found inside the houses and no injuries were reported. The firefighters were told by property owners that both houses had been vacant for some time. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
With 10 Chattanooga Fire Department (CFD) fire companies committed to this fire, mutual aid assistance was requested to help cover the city. The East Ridge Fire Department sent a pumper to the CFD’s Station 5, and the Red Bank and Signal Mountain fire departments sent apparatus to the CFD’s Station 1, ready to respond if called upon. Chattanooga police, Hamilton County EMS and Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue also provided valuable assistance on the scene.
Bruce Garner is the Chattanooga (TN) Fire Department Public Information Director.
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