Fire Damages House on Pinellas Lane

Photo courtesy of Frank Pate

A fire damaged a house on Pinellas Lane, late Saturday afternoon.

According to East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams, firefighters were dispatched to 3509 Pinellas Ln. at 5:30 p.m. When first responders arrived smoke was coming from the home. The occupants of the house had safely gotten outside before crews arrived. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters made an aggressive attack on the fire in the basement and first floor of the home, officials said. The fire was quickly extinguished. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, Chief Williams said.

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.