KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An area along Western Avenue near Lonsdale has been evacuated after the Knoxville Fire Department responded to a report about a box with possible explosives at CMC Recycling.
"We are doing this out of an absolute abundance of caution," said Scott Erland, a Knoxville Police Department spokesperson. "We don't know exactly what we're dealing with, but we're operating under the assumption that we are dealing with an explosive."
An Emergency Alert went out to phones in the surrounding Knoxville area around 4:25 p.m. alerting people about the evacuation. If you aren't inside the evacuation area circled in blue in the picture below in the Lonsdale area surrounding the 2700 block of Western Avenue, you do not need to evacuate.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon also said evacuees could go to the Jacob Building for shelter and resources. She also asked people to reach out to neighbors and community members if they could not evacuate and said the Red Cross was helping coordinate resources.
She said the city was working with Knoxville Area Transit to help people with mobility issues evacuate. Authorities estimated up to 1,200 people were impacted by the recommended evacuation.
Erland said he expected the investigation to be a long-term event, and said the evacuation would still be in place overnight into Friday. Authorities also said anyone who needs help evacuating could call the police department's non-emergency line at 865-215-4010.
He also said the evacuation area was expanded to a 3,000-foot perimeter around CMC Recycling at around 4:15 p.m. He also said the steel recycling company made the first call about the box.
Erland and Kincannon said there was no indication that the box was placed maliciously, but did say it started smoking. Erland said it appeared as if some materials had been improperly handled in the company.
"We do not suspect any terroristic threat or bomb," Kincannon said.
According to a release, authorities responded to a call at the recycling plant that workers found a 5x5 steel box that had possible dynamite and was smoking.
Erland said the bomb squad had already flown a drone to the box to investigate it. However, with the box still smoking, it could not handle the box closely without taking major risks. Until the bomb squad could do that, Erland said it would not be able to identify specifically what was inside it.
In the meantime, he said bomb squad technicians believe the box does contain explosives.
According to KFD, crews initially responded to a hazmat situation along Western Avenue between Texas and Massachusetts Avenues.
KFD said it evacuated the area after the box began smoking. It said it sent a public safety message through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to people inside the affected area.
"Once we have made a positive determination as to what we are dealing with we will update you," KFD said.
Authorities said it responded at around 2:15 p.m. to calls about the box. A spokesperson said a bomb squad technician responded to the scene and was operating under the assumption that the device was explosive.
He said authorities "learned more as they progressed in the investigation." Erland also said the box was not believed to be delivered to nearby industrial locations and was left on some property in the area.
Crews said no injuries have been reported. Western Avenue is closed out of precaution as crews respond.
Knoxville Area Transit also said the investigation was interrupting some of its services. It said Route 12 was affected and the bus would not be able to serve stops west of Keith Avenue, including the Lonsdale community or the Walmart market near Western Avenue and McKamey Road.
This is a developing story and will be updated.