Small fire burns at Broadway Towers; no injuries reported

A small fire broke out near the top of the Broadway Towers building in downtown Maryville Thursday afternoon, May 16. No one had been injured by the time the fire was extinguished, officials with the Maryville Fire Department said.

Julie Sharpe, executive director of the Maryville Housing Authority, which runs Broadway Towers, said Thursday that the fire did not damage the building itself. The structure rises 16 stories and houses primarily elderly and disabled people; it contains 150 single-bedroom apartments.

A motor malfunction in an elevator sparked the fire, Sharpe told The Daily Times. Much of what residents observed Thursday, she said, was smoke from burnt plastic residue.

“(The fire) was at the top of Broadway Towers,” she said, not inside of residents’ homes. The smoke did not trigger the building’s sprinkler system.

Maryville Fire and Police Chief Tony Crisp told the newspaper that a call regarding a fire at Broadway Towers came in at about 1:30 p.m. The fire started in an elevator shaft, he said. Seventeen firefighters — 13 from MFD and four from the Alcoa Fire Department — arrived at the scene, while Maryville Police officers closed part of the road in the front of the building.

Firefighters evacuated some residents from the building after arrival, Crisp said. Sharpe noted Thursday that the residents were able to return shortly after leaving and that no one would be forced from the building overnight.

At about 3 p.m. Crisp told the newspaper that the fire had been extinguished and that efforts were focused on ventilating smoke from the building.