Fire Damages House on Tombras

East Ridge firefighters mop up after a blaze damaged this house at 1712 Tombras Ave. early Saturday morning.

A pre-dawn fire damaged a house on Tombras Avenue on Saturday.

Officials with the East Ridge Fire Department said a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department deputy coming home from work noticed smoke coming from the house at 1712 Tombras at about 5:30 a.m.

Moments later when East Ridge firefighters arrived, fire was coming through the roof of the single-story home. Chief Mike Williams said that firefighters made an interior attack of the fire and were able to extinguish it in about 20 minutes. Traffic on Tombras Avenue was diverted onto Ealy and Dupont as firefighting apparatus blocked the street.

Chief Williams said the house was vacant and undergoing renovation by the owner in order to rent it. He said nobody was hurt in the blaze.

Chief Williams said that the cause of the fire is unknown and an investigation has been initiated.

Fire Trucks block Tombras Avenue between Dupont and Ealy Saturday morning. A pre-dawn fire damaged a vacant home that was being renovated.

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.