Early-Morning Fire Damages Apartment

A fire early New Year’s Eve damaged an apartment in East Ridge

According to East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams, firefighters were called to an apartment at 916 Donaldson Road just after 1 a.m. on Monday morning. When they arrived, all the occupants of the apartment complex were safely outside of the structure.

Heavy smoke was seen coming from the building but fire crews quickly located and extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported. Chief Williams said the American Red Cross was called in to assist the occupants of the apartment.

“Great job Red Shift (fire), East Ridge Police and all that were involved,” Chief Williams wrote in the city’s Fire and Rescue Service Facebook page.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.