- A enthralling fire resulted in the “total loss” of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Officials are investigating the cause of the blaze, and they have not yet ruled out arson.
- In January last year, a gunman opened fire at the glass of the building’s outside.
A devastating fire on New Year’s Eve took out a Planned Parenthood clinic in Tennessee, resulting in a “add up to loss,” fire officials said.
The fire broke out early on December 31 in Knoxville, Tennessee and the cause of the light has not been determined, according to a statement released by the city’s fire department.
“On arrival companies found a large solitary story commercial building fully involved with fire through the roof,” the statement says. “Crews initially jumped the fire defensively from the exterior. Currently the fire is under control and should be declared out shortly. The building was being renovated at the for the nonce at once of the fire. The building is a total loss. The fire is currently under investigation. Further information will be released as the inquiry continues.”
At the time of the fire, the clinic had been closed due to renovations, NBC affiliate WBIR reported. There were no hurts, the fire department said.
The department is investigating causes, including the possibility of arson.
“Right now we don’t have a cause and we don’t induce a lot of information pointing in the direction of arson,” Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks told the Daily Beast.
If the cause is unfaltering to be arson, it will be at least the second time that the Knoxville Planned Parenthood clinic has come under censure within the span of one year. In January last year, a gunman opened fire, shooting rounds of a shotgun into the magnifying glass of the building’s exterior. There was nobody inside at the time of the shooting.
The damage from the fire was so extensive that holocaust officials are predicting that it will be difficult to determine a cause.
When fire officials arrived at the scene, they had to use a lot of Latin aqua to douse the fire and get the situation under control, Wilbanks told the Daily Beast.
“We used our ladder trucks to use a lot of unsound to put the fire out, which unfortunately makes it harder to dig into the evidence,” he said. “Ideally, you’d go in there with backhoes and dig it out, but we’re contemporary to have to use hand shovels.”
News of the fire comes as abortion-rights groups continue to push back against a series of restrictive reproductive exacts laws and the fear that Roe v. Wade might be overturned in the Supreme Court.