Smoke billowed from the scattered refuse at Knoxville's solid waste facility yesterday afternoon, prompting an immediate response from local firefighting teams. According to Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks, in a statement obtained by WATE, crews were dispatched shortly after 2:32 p.m. to contain a trash fire that had erupted on-site. The Knoxville Fire Department (KFD), aided by the city's solid waste and public service team, managed to sort and to swiftly extinguish the blaze within half an hour of their arrival.
The incident was first flagged by the Knox County Emergency Communications District's alarm system, as per the time-stamped alert they received around 2:30 p.m. When KFD officials arrived, they witnessed smoke rising from the rear sorting building of the facility. "Crews found a pile of trash that was on fire and began putting it out," Assistant Chief Wilbanks told WVLT. Details surrounding the fire's causal factors remain under investigation by KFD authorities.
This particular fire occurrence came on the heels of an earlier incident the same day, involving a potentially dangerous fire at a Knoxville gas station. That situation, while significant, was deemed by KFD to have been mitigated before evolving into a more severe extent. These back-to-back fire events punctuated the day for Knoxville first responders, as reported by WATE.
Fortunately, no injuries have been reported in the wake of the waste facility fire. KFD has begun a thorough investigation to ascertain what exactly sparked the fire, with teams on-scene sorting through debris and examining the aftermath of the extinguished flames. As KFD indicated to WBIR, "Investigators are on the scene of the fire to determine the cause," aiming to prevent future incidents of a similar nature and to safeguard this necessary municipal service.
