Fire Damages Duplex on South Terrace

A fire damaged a duplex on South Terrace, late Wednesday afternoon, creating traffic congestion on the busy thoroughfare during one of the heaviest travel days of the year.

East Ridge firefighters were dispatched to 4104 South Terrace at 4:31 p.m.. When firefighters arrived smoke was visible coming from a second story window.

Officials said the fire was quickly contained and did damage to a room and its contents. No injuries were reported.

East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams said the fire appears to be accidental, and started in the kitchen. Chief Williams said the Red Cross has been called in to give assistance to the seven people who have been displaced due to the fire.

Firefighters had two of three lanes on South Terrace just west of Brookfield Avenue blocked with emergency vehicles. Rush hour traffic was bottle-necked coming from Belvoir Avenue.

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.