Oak Ridge firefighters battle a blaze allegedly started by arsonists on Saturday afternoon at the former Paragon Athletic Club on Emory Valley Road. (Photos by Tom Scott)
Arsonists started a Saturday afternoon fire at the former Paragon Athletic Club in Oak Ridge, Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.
The fire started in a bathroom area in the rear of the building on Emory Valley Road about 5 p.m. Saturday, and it warped steel beams in the ceiling.
Firefighters near the front door of Paragon Athletic Club in Oak Ridge during a Saturday afternoon blaze.
Witnesses reported seeing “some kids hanging out there just before the fire,” Kerley said.
“It was an arson fire,” he said.
A fiberglass spa tub had caught on fire and filled the empty, unused building with thick, black smoke. Kerley said it took firefighters eight to 10 minutes to find the fire inside the Paragon and another five to 10 minutes to put it out.
It took an hour just to clear out the smoke.
Kerley said evidence has been collected from the scene, and the Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating the fire.
The chief said firefighters were able to contain Saturday’s blaze to the restroom area, where it had become “huge” and “very hot.”
Black smoke pours out of the former Paragon Athletic Club, where a fiberglass spa tub caught on fire.
Kerley said the fire at the Paragon is the fourth blaze caused by arson in Oak Ridge since Christmas, but he doesn’t think they are related. There were witnesses at two of the fires, one at Big Turtle Park and the other at Paragon.
The other two arson fires were on Outer Drive and Park Lane.
So far, no arrests have been made, Kerley said.
A firefighter in a ladder truck fights the Saturday afternoon blaze at Paragon.
kay williamson says
maybe if ‘CODE ENFORCEMENT WOULD BOARD UP THE BUILDING AND HOUSES’ The daily riff wouldn’t be running threw them…………