An early morning fire destroyed at least two condominiums in the Highland Cove Complex near Center Hill Lake early Monday morning.
The three story, six condo complex is located on Dale Ridge Road (Highway 96) in the area of Cove Hollow.
According to DeKalb County Fire Chief Donny Green, the fire started on the top floor of the “H” building and swept through both condos there. The two condos on each of the first and second floors were spared any fire damage because of the concrete floors in between each level of the building but there was some smoke and water damage there.
“We got the call at 5:22 a.m. A caller phoned 911 and reported that flames were already coming out of the roof and when we got there that is what we found. One condo unit on the third floor was fully involved with flames already coming out and the fire had moved into the adjoining condo unit. We also had exposure risk on the “G” building some 40 to 50 feet from the “H” building. Heat from the fire had melted the siding on the end of the “G” building so we deployed a large master stream of water to knock the flame and heat back off that building,” said Chief Green.
Although hydrants were available, Chief Green said water pressure issues forced firefighters to shuttle water from the lake to help get the blaze under control.
“We had a little issue with water supply. We had hydrants but there was not a lot of flow or pressure out there. We wound up having to set up a tanker shuttle operation, going down to Cove Hollow Marina and drafting water out of the lake and hauling it back up to the fire,” Chief Green continued.
DeKalb County firefighters received mutual aid back up from crews with the Smithville and Cookeville Fire Departments who brought in their ladder trucks and from the Putnam County Fire Department. “Smithville city got here with their ladder truck. We set it up, got water supply to it, and was able to get a pretty good knock down on the fire. We (county fire department) have a deck gun to get water up there but its more effective if you can spray down on it from a ladder truck. We didn’t have enough water to supply both the Cookeville and Smithville ladder trucks so we wound up using the City of Smithville’s ladder truck.
Although all the condos in the “H” building are occupied no one was home at the time of the fire except one occupant on the first floor and he got out safely.
“Sheriff’s Department officers went unit to unit and forced entry to make sure no one was in them. Because of the time of day it was, we were afraid somebody might still be in bed,” said Chief Green.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined although an occupant in the “G” building said he thought lightning from a passing thunderstorm might have struck the building overnight triggering the blaze.
“The State Fire Marshal has been here and its under investigation because of the high dollar value commercial loss. It’s a possibility (lightning) but we don’t know that,” Chief Green concluded.
Members of the Liberty, Temperance Hall, Cookeville Highway, Short Mountain Highway, and Main Stations of the DeKalb County Fire Department responded along with the tanker truck, DeKalb EMS, and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.
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