Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
A sign marks an entrance to the UTC campus.Six UTC students were displaced when an apartment room caught fire after some residents were smoking Friday night, according to nearby residents.
Domineik Gillard and her four roommates live above the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lockmiller II apartment that caught fire. The five were playing Nintendo Wii around 11:15 p.m. when they noticed a smell of burnt marshmallows coming from the apartment below.
“We came downstairs and we saw blazes of fire,” Gillard said. Smoke soon billowed into the top apartment, covering everything in soot, she said.
Gillard’s roommate Brandi Dickinson said two of the six residents below were in the apartment when the blaze caught.
“They said that you could just like, smell the smoke, but they’re used to smoke coming out of that room,” Dickinson said. “I know one was asleep and one was just doing work or something.”
Dickinson said both residents got out of the apartment before the fire became too intense, and firefighters were able to control the blaze by 11:50 p.m.
UTC and fire officials said the official cause is undetermined.
Samantha Watson, who also lives above the now burnt-out apartment, said her biggest concern was the amount of time it took to realize there was a fire. She said she’s used to alarms going off around her as others burn food on the stove, and it wasn’t until someone knocked on her door that she realized what was happening.
“If it were during the week, some people would have been sleeping,” she said. “They wouldn’t know.”
The fire caused roughly $15,000 in damage, and a contractor has been hired to repair the apartment. The six displaced residents have been assigned new living arrangements.
Contact Carey O’Neil at coneil@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6525.