The former Paragon Athletic Club on Emory Valley Road has been demolished. This picture was taken on Sunday, July 19, 2015. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 7:52 p.m.
The former Paragon Athletic Club on Emory Valley Road has been demolished.
The building, which hadn’t been used for years, has been knocked to the ground, although debris remains at the site.
The former fitness center is near the former Food Lion grocery store in east Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
James T. Akagi
For the second time in a week, Oak Ridge Police James T. Akagi has helped arrest two suspects.
Last week, the chief tackled one of two men who fled from him in a car through Scarboro and then on foot.
This week, Akagi stopped a white van at the former Paragon Athletic Club on Emory Valley Road. In the back of the van, an apparent HVAC unit valued at $11,000 was visible through an open rear hatch, and it appeared to have been cut from the fitness center, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Nathan Stinnett said in affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
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.
