Robert VandergriffFires were set in the doorways of a Hixson duplex as a burglary suspect fled from Chattanooga police earlier this month, causing one officer to slip and fall into what appeared to be accelerant fluid, leading that officer to catch on fire, Hamilton County court records show.
Officers Joe Kerns, Michael Woodling and Britton Virden were injured, and one of them had to be taken to Vanderbilt University’s burn center. It wasn’t clear which officer that was.
The officers had been following up on a reported burglary from earlier that day – Aug. 2 – when they spotted suspects in the driveway of the duplex in the 5100 block of Eldridge Road around 9 p.m. They detained two people and a third, Robert Vandergriff, barricaded himself in the home.
As officers waited for backup and for search warrants to be granted, they noticed Vandergriff began setting fires inside one of the units, something police said was set up “to kill CPD officers on scene as they made entry into the duplex to take [him] incustody [sic],” according to court records.
Vandergriff then tried to force his way into the neighboring duplex, which was occupied by two other people who were evacuated from the home.