Dec. 12--KNOXVILLE -- The vision of piled up metal, brick, burned wood and mattresses was not what Richard Smith and his mother expected to see when they returned to the scene of a South Knoxville apartment building fire.
"We actually thought this morning we'd have a chance to go through it and see if there is anything salvageable," Smith, 30, said Thursday.
Smith and his 51-year-old mother, Anita Hall, lived on the top floor. They fled the apartment with few personal possessions.
Smith, who was awakened by smoke, woke his mother who was asleep on a couch, grabbed his passport and fled wearing his shorts. Hall grabbed a coat and two mismatched shoes.
"We lost all our Christmas presents, our clothes, all our pictures -- it sucks," Smith said.
City work crews Thursday morning toppled walls of the burned apartment building because the structure was too unsafe for fire investigators to enter.
Knoxville Fire Marshal Danny Beeler said a city backhoe was called to shove brick walls inward that posed a safety hazard.
"For the perfect investigation scenario, the walls would be pushed out to provide access to the scene and not in, but we don't have that luxury," Beeler said.
Knoxville Fire Department spokesman Capt. D.J. Corcoran said the backhoe will be available to lift debris to provide better access for fire investigators to the collapsed scene.
Beeler said fire investigators also were looking at reports that a resident said she learned of the fire when someone pounded on her door and not from a smoke alarm.
"If all the fire was in the attic, the smoke detectors wouldn't go off on the ground floor apartments," Beeler said.
The fire at Southwood Apartments, 2710 Sevier Ave., displaced 14 residents and injured two firefighters.
All the residents managed to safely escape the massive fire that engulfed the three-story, 13-unit apartment building and collapsed its roof, according to Corcoran.
Six of the 14 displaced residents were put up in a hotel by the American Red Cross, according to Benjamin Prijatel, regional communications director with the organization. Others stayed with relatives or were relocated within the complex.
Master Firefighter Scott Bowman received a mild concussion, and Capt. Eddie Ault received several stitches to his head, Corcoran said. The two were injured when the roof toppled over, tossing burning debris onto an exterior stairwell as crews were ordered to evacuate.
Ault also will need some dental work because the impact of debris on his head sharply jarred his teeth, Corcoran said.
The blaze was reported about 8:38 p.m. when flames broke through the roof of the brick structure.
Kristi Kitzmiller was preparing dinner inside her ground-floor unit when she smelled something burning, and then noticed smoke pouring from an electrical outlet behind her daughter's bed.
She, her three young children and her boyfriend ran from the building to see flames erupting from the roof. They had no time to grab anything, including their shoes.
"I tried to get my kids' Christmas presents out, but I couldn't," Kitzmiller said in tears.
Corcoran said early reports indicate that the fire might have started in the building's attic, and that fire investigators will begin their task by focusing on that portion of the building.
The American Red Cross also responded to the scene to assist the residents with shelter and other necessities.
Mary Harrington was visiting from New York and staying at her sister's ground-floor unit when she suddenly heard the call to evacuate.
"The lady across the hall, they were getting her out and her apartment was full of smoke ... you could see the smoke billowing out of her apartment," Harrington said. "I had no indication there was anything going on until they knocked.
"I grabbed my wallet and that was it ... ran out barefoot with my wallet."
Her sister, a custodian, was at work.
Fire Investigator Richard Gibson said the building is a total loss.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Staff writers Don Jacobs and Hayes Hickman contributed to this report.
More details as they develop online and in Friday's News Sentinel.
Copyright 2013 - The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
