Investigation of Crawdaddy’s Fire Expected To Last Days

Cookeville Fire Chief Daryl Blair said finding the cause of Wednesday’s Crawdaddy’s fire will take some time as officials continue to evaluate the situation.

Blair said this is routine for a situation like this. For now, fire crews are regularly checking for hot spots.

“There is a lot of pockets inside the brick and stuff where smoke is trapped,” Blair said. “We are just keeping an eye on that to make sure it is just smoke that is trapped. If we do find more hot spots, we will extinguish them. We will have crews pretty much on the scene throughout the evening.”

Blair said the brick and mortar wall of the restaurant helped in fighting the fire. Blair said the commonly referred “Fire Walls,” keep flames from spreading to other buildings.

“These old buildings in the old part of town has got fire walls,” Blair said. “And it is just pretty much brick and mortar. They work excellent. They have helped stop a lot of fires that we have had in the old part of town.”

Blair said the restaurant should be able to be rebuilt based on the damage. Blair said he is proud of the response from his crews and their abilities to contain the fire.