In less than 48 hours, fire crews have battled a handful of house fires in East Nashville, Madison, Donelson, and Mt. Juliet. Frigid temperatures made each scene more complicated than a typical fire call.
"It is a challenge, especially when it's 10 degrees out here," said Larry Jackson, a district fire chief with Nashville Fire. "It's not something you do naturally, get out here and play with water in ten degrees."
Jackson responded to a fire at 115 Lemuel Road just before 4 a.m. Sunday. The fire happened in the home's second story - water iced over the home's stairs, firefighter's suits, and the road in front of the scene.
"It takes a lot of preparation. The main thing is we have to make sure the water in our pumps doesn't freeze up," Jackson said. "If we get water on it, it will freeze - just like anything else."
Metro Works also responded to the scene to lay salt on the road out front, but at a separate fire, even that couldn't help.
"It has turned into black ice," said Assistant Fire Chief Walter Demonbreun, who responded to two separate fire on Tanglewood Drive Saturday morning.
"It makes footing real treacherous for firefighters," Demonbreun said. "At this point, there's no use calling a salt truck out here, because it's everywhere right now."
Luckily, everyone made it out of each fire alive. One man was taken from the Lemuel Road fire to the the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Another fire took place in Donelson around 5:30 a.m. Sunday on Modena Drive.
Officials said two people were inside when the fire began. No injuries were reported.
Flames were visible when crews arrived, and they had to cut a hole in the roof to fight the fire that was believed to have started in the kitchen.
Authorities said it appeared to be an electrical fire, but the investigation remained ongoing.
