Tennessee Reports Jump in Fires, Fatalities

Fire officials in eastern Tennessee are seeing an increase in the number of fires and an uptick in the number of fatalities stemming from those blazes.

Knoxville Fire Capt. D.J. Corcoran told WBIR-TV that there was a single fatality in 2013, but four already this year. Corcoran said he didn’t know the reason for the increase.

In Knox County, fire officials are seeing a higher number of blazes this year over previous years.

Rural-Metro Fire Chief Jerry Harnish says there were 101 fires in 2013, bu already 133 in 2014 — nearly a 30 percent increase in a single year. Harnish said the increase is in part due to cooking around the holidays and electrical reasons.