UPDATED: Spring Creek Elementary Closed Due to Fire

UPDATE: Spring Creek Elementary School Principal Pihl Iannarone said Monday afternoon that he expects the school to reopen next Monday, after fire damaged the boiler room in a separate maintenance building. He said the fire was contained to one side of the building that had a firewall running down the middle. The fire happened during Thanksgiving week in which the students were to attend only on Monday and Tuesday. So, Iannarone said, the school was “fortunate” in that the mishap occurred when the school had a short week. He said the staff of the school may report back to the facility on Tuesday, as power has been restored to the building.

Spring Creek Elementary School will be closed on Monday due to a fire in a maintenance building.

According to East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams, firefighters were called to the school at 1100 Spring Creek Road at about 3:20 a.m. Monday on a commercial fire alarm. When they arrived they found the maintenance building was on fire producing heavy smoke. The 30-foot by 50-foot building is behind the main structure of the school. Chief Williams said the building provides the school with all utilities.

Chief Williams said the school will be closed on Monday as crews from Hamilton County schools evaluate the damage.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

East Ridge News Online will update this story when more information becomes available.

East Ridge firefighters mop up after a fire erupted in the maintenance building of Spring Creek Elementary school early Monday morning.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.