MOUNT VERNON — One apartment unit is considered a total loss after a fire Saturday morning at Shalimar Apartments in Mount Vernon.
According to Knox County 911, the Mount Vernon Fire Department was dispatched at 5:28 a.m. to 740 D Shalimar Drive.
Fire Marshal Terry Davis said flames were visible from the front and rear of the apartment when firefighters arrived.
“The fire was already vented and coming out, so they were behind the eight ball to begin with, but they went straight in and knocked it down,” Davis said.
“The unit with the fire in it is a complete loss. The next unit over has a little bit of smoke damage, and the other two are OK.”
Davis said the fire was contained on the first floor of apartment D. However, the second floor sustained high heat and smoke damage.
“The stairs going up to the second floor is just like a chimney, so the heat and smoke and everything takes off and goes up through there. If it would have actually caught the upstairs on fire, it would be different,” Davis said.
“Windows were knocked out by the firefighters, so there was no explosion. The fire was contained through this unit.”
The building contains four units; each unit has separate power.
“The fire department killed the breaker, and then AEP showed up and actually disconnected the power from these two units [C and D],” Davis said.
Rainbow Restorations was on scene at 9 a.m. to board up and secure the units.
Cause of fire unknown
Davis said a preliminary cause for the fire is not known.
“There are patterns that usually point back to something, and there are a couple,” he said. “There’s a lot of fire load in the kitchen, but until we dig into it and kind of sift through some stuff, I don’t know for sure.”
According to Davis, the property manager has started an insurance claim.
“The company will send an investigator out, and then what we’ll do is just compare notes,” Davis said. “I’ll come out when they show up and show them what we found, what the fire department saw when they got here, and then we’ll see if we can narrow it down to what we think happened.”
The occupant of Apartment D was at a nearby friend’s house when the fire started. The American Red Cross and Salvation Army are assisting him and the occupants of Apartment C with housing.
Units A and B remain occupied.
Firefighters provided oxygen to a dog from Unit D.
