Fire Destroys Home on Coconut Ridge. Two County Firefighters Treated for Exhaustion

September 26, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

A fire destroyed a single story home at 2045 Coconut Ridge Road Wednesday afternoon. No one at the residence was hurt but two firefighters were treated at the scene and transported to Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital for exhaustion.

The home was fully involved in flames by the time firefighters could arrive and they were unable to save it.

According to the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department, the home belonged to Thomas Starkey of Nashville but his brother William Starkey lived there. Father-in-law Marvin Gesford was there at the time of the fire and he saw through the kitchen window flames on the back deck. Gesford tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire with a pitcher of water as the flames grew larger. Gesford made it safely out of the house and went next door to call for help but the neighbor was not at home. A passerby saw the blaze and called 911.

Members of the Main Station, Four Seasons and Cookeville Highway Stations along with the tanker , brush, and equipment trucks of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department responded as well as the Rehab Team, the Tennessee Division of Forestry, DeKalb EMS, and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

The cause of the fire is undetermined.

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