A fire ripped through the McClung warehouses in downtown Knoxville around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 7. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Four firefighters were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with first, second and third degree burns. A firetruck also was seriously damaged after the second warehouse building collapsed. All four firefighters have been released and are recovering.
The McClung warehouses were constructed in the 1890s and are centered in downtown Knoxville close to the Old City. Renovation was in discussion on the warehouses before the fire. There was only one operating business in the warehouses at the time of the blaze.
Firefighters began sifting through the debris from the fire on Feb. 12. Even though the blaze has not been ruled as arson, investigators are shedding some light on the mystery. With over 100 hours of interviews, nothing has been ruled out.
On Feb. 6, owner of the McClung warehouse, Mark Saroff, reported his truck stolen. The investigation continued in Asheville, N.C. when police found Barry Thomas Jones. He is currently in custody on the charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.
According to Fire Department Investigator Capt. Danny Beeler, the fire originated in a storage room which had electricity at the time of the fire. The room was located in the second of the connected warehouses.
Comments
Prof. Rob Heller commented, on February 7, 2007 at 12:04 p.m.:
Great job covering this breaking story--and the photos are very strong!
mitch commented, on February 7, 2007 at 3:55 p.m.:
These photographers did one damn good job!!Keep up the good work that we expect!
Liz commented, on February 7, 2007 at 6:11 p.m.:
Striking photography! I had a tough time getting your web page to cooperate though.
Bob Stepno commented, on February 7, 2007 at 6:54 p.m.:
(Shoptalk, mostly)
Note to page template department -- let's put photographers' credit lines in larger, darker type. They deserve it! The silver-on-white is almost invisible on some monitors. (i.e., my Powerbook) Something strange was going on while I typed this note, too. Maybe Johnny or Joseph can tell us if it's a heavy-traffic issue, or what: I had already viewed the photo slideshow through the end and closed its window, but it kept popping open... to show me images 6, 7 and 8 over and over, then backing up to images 5 and 4. Each reload froze the screen and interrupted my typing, once every 10 seconds or so.
Template Dept commented, on February 8, 2007 at 3:17 p.m.:
Dr. Stepno, we will be working on 'photo credits' this week. We (tnjn.com staff) also need to work on helping folks resize their photos. While these are beyond fantastic, 2mb per photo is a hard chunk to swallow.
Lillian commented, on February 9, 2007 at 2:25 p.m.:
Great pictures, but not much of a story.
Sara commented, on February 9, 2007 at 4:35 p.m.:
The pictures Anne Claire Siegert took from that night were extrordinary. Its nice to see some pictures in the beginning of the fire. WOW!!