A Franklin woman and her feline companion are starting over after their condo was engulfed in flames Sunday evening, leaving them without a place to call home. The blaze, which erupted in the woman's garage on Morrissey Street, caused an estimated $10,000 in damages, as reported by the Williamson Herald.
Responders from the Franklin Fire Department were on the scene at Reid Hill Commons condos in under four minutes following the 911 call just before 7 p.m. They tackled the flames and the dense smoke billowing from the open garage, preventing further spread to the adjacent unit, even though the garage's contents had already been set ablaze according to Fox17.
Brian Daugherty, the fire investigator, revealed that the fire started in the attached garage where an electric range, plugged in and forgotten, was accidentally switched on by the homeowner - igniting a plastic tote negligently left atop it. "It appears the woman, who was the sole occupant of the home, accidentally bumped a knob and turned on the appliance," Daugherty told Williamson Herald.
The woman who was inside her home at the time of the fire was alerted by a popping noise from her garage and upon investigating, she encountered the fire, promptly evacuating with her cat, and making the call to emergency services, she left both the garage door and the door to her home open upon exiting, which allowed the smoke to permeate into the living spaces somewhat complicating the firefighters' efforts to contain and extinguish the fire as shared by WKRN News 2. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in the incident, and attention now turns to the road to recovery for the displaced woman and her pet.
