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Increased reports point to more unhoused people taking shelter inside empty, abandoned buildings

Reports of people setting warming fires are rising in Knoxville. Five warming fires were extinguished by the Knoxville Fire department in January.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A fire broke out Sunday night that ravaged through the historic Standard Knitting Mill building.

It was the second fire at the location in a 24-hour period. Authorities are still investigating the cause of that second fire. However, they said the first fire was a warming fire that got out of hand. Three arrests were made in that case.

Knoxville authorities believe unhoused people may be setting more fires to stay warm this winter season, as more people take shelter from the cold in abandoned buildings.

"It is something in the future we're going to start taking a little bit closer look at, because we do believe the call volume has increased slightly for these events," said Mark Wilbanks with the Knoxville Fire Department.

The Knoxville Fire Department said it deals with warming fires every winter.

"We'll see a few structures throughout the wintertime that people have illegally gotten into and started either warming fires or cooking fires," Wilbanks said.

Chris Taylor with the Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless said people experiencing homelessness may live out of abandoned buildings or homes just to survive, without anywhere else to go to protect themselves from the cold.

"They're not doing that on purpose. They're trying to survive, they're trying to stay alive, and stay warm," Taylor said.

TVCH serves most of the counties surrounding Knox County and said they aim to prevent homelessness in East Tennessee. Their goal is to make homelessness in this region a rarity.

"Homelessness is all about survival. And sometimes it's from minute to minute, day to day, hour to hour, month to month, and so all they're trying to do is survive," Taylor said.

The Knoxville Fire Department visited a handful of abandoned or empty buildings so far in 2022. They've put out two fires at the Standard Knitting Mill in North Knoxville, a few warming fires inside home residences in East Knoxville, and at the old hospital off of Blount Avenue in South Knoxville. 

The Blount Avenue fire was unique, officials said, because authorities witnessed more than 40 people leave the structure due to the fire. They said those 40 people either lived in the building or were taking shelter there.

"We've never seen this large of a group of people in one place at one time," Wilbanks said, "And, that particular property had done a lot to secure the property and they still were able to break in."

10News reached out to the city about the matter. Due to the buildings being private property, the city said it is pretty limited on how they're permitted to intervene with the issue.

The city's policy on abandoned and decrepit buildings is below:

Maintenance of private property/buildings, regardless of condition, is the responsibility of the property owner. When an owner fails to comply with property and building codes adopted by the city, codes enforcement personnel initiate notification procedures requesting the owner take corrective action. Our officers do this work throughout the city each day and many owners comply once notified. 

People can call 311 or visit Neighborhood Codes Enforcement to register a complaint about a property. Then, the city can issue a letter of violation. The property owner then has 14 days to comply. 

However, homeless outreach organizations are trying to get people off the streets and into safe shelters. However, affordable housing in the city is becoming scarcer and more renters are wondering where they will live as prices rise.

"There's a lot of options and things that that are out there, if people know that they're out there, and are willing to go and take advantage of those opportunities," Taylor said.

You can find more information about the services TVCH provides here.

  

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