Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Swift action by Knoxville Fire Department crews saves a small dog Wednesday afternoon from a burning home.
Crews were dispatched just after noon to a possible house fire at 4006 Ivy Avenue; a neighbor advised that they did not believe anyone was home, but did believe there was a small dog inside the residence.
KFD says upon arrival they found heavy smoke and fire coming from the front of the home.
Crews were able to make a rapid entry into the house to begin fighting the fire, and while searching the home located a small dog, which was removed unharmed. The animal has been sent to a local veterinarian’s office for evaluation.
Fire officials say the home was occupied by one adult female who was away at the time of the fire and that the home has suffered heavy smoke and fire damage and is likely a total loss.
KFD adds the home had working smoke alarms, which were activated upon crews’ arrival.
No Injuries were reported.
The Knoxville Fire Department’s Fire Investigations Unit is on scene, working to determine a cause.
Knoxville Fire Department crews respond to house fire Wednesday at 4006 Ivy Avenue. (Courtesy: KFD)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football returned to the practice field with a two-hour shoulder pads practice following its week-long spring break on Tuesday at Haslam Field. Head coach Josh Heupel met with the media following the fifth spring practice.
Wide Receiver Leadership Emerging The Volunteers must replace wide receivers Bru McCoy, Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Squirrel White. Returning Vols Mike Matthews, Braylon Staley and redshirt junior Chris Brazzell II are emerging as leaders in their second year in the offensive system. Brazell led that trio and ranked third on the team with 29 catches for 333 yards and two touchdowns last season.
“I think part of it is a credit to them and the work that they have put into it,” Heupel said. “But in year two, it’s true for every player; in what we do offensively, the understanding of what we’re doing, the decisions that they have to make and being on the same page. Fundamentals and techniques continue to improve, but they have a great understanding having played in it—what it looks like, what it feels like, and how they have to operate within it.”
Two-Way Player Boo Carter Boo Carter is coming off an SEC All-Freshman Team season in his first year on Rocky Top. Carter proved to be one of the most dynamic players in the SEC, leading the league in punt return average at 16.5 yards per return. He also settled into a secondary starting role at STAR. The fall could see the Chattanooga native take on slot receiver duties, a role he is experimenting with this spring.
“Boo’s done a really good job on the defensive side of the ball,” Heupel said. “You saw him as a punt returner – electric with the ball in his hands. We’ve experimented with him on the offensive side of the football as well, and he’s handled it really well up until this point.”
Carter was a two-way star and the No. 1 player in the state coming out of Bradley Central High School. He finished his 2023 senior season with 1,795 all-purpose yards and 27 total touchdowns.
Ethan Davis Forming Elite Returning Tight End Duo Tennessee will boast one of the top tight end duos in the SEC with the return of Miles Kitselman and Ethan Davis. The athletic Davis earned SEC All-Freshman laurels last year after hauling in 13 passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns. He has taken advantage of the Vols’ offseason program.
“Ethan has done an elite job just growing through our winter,” Heupel said. “He’s done a great job with his body. He’s just continued to mature as a man, just how he approaches every single day. He has been really consistent. We have great understanding of what we’re getting from him every single day, and that’s a credit to him just continuing to grow as a man.”
Coaches Clinic Tennessee will host its annual Coaches Clinic this Friday and Saturday with former NFL coach Jon Gruden as the keynote speaker. Gruden got his coaching start as a graduate assistant under Johnny Majors at UT from 1986-87. Full clinic details, including registration are available here. The clinic is open to high school and middle school coaches.
“Coaches from our footprint have an opportunity to come in and be able to talk ball with us,” Heupel said. “Obviously, Coach Gruden coming in and headlining the event, it will be a lot of fun to have a lot of people here on campus.”
Everything School Heupel opened his Tuesday press conference with a shoutout to men’s and women’s basketball head coaches Rick Barnes and Kim Caldwell. The Vols and Lady Vols have both advanced to this weekend’s NCAA Sweet 16 in Indianapolis and Birmingham, respectively. Heupel’s football program is coming off its first College Football Playoff berth, and Tennessee was the only school this athletic year to reach the CFP and the NCAA men’s and women’s Sweet 16.
“I’ll start by just saying what an awesome weekend for our athletic department, our university,” Heupel said. “Congratulations to Coach Barnes and Coach Caldwell. It was a lot of fun to just watch those teams go compete and have a ton of success. I look forward to watching them here this weekend as well.”
Tennessee will practice two more times this week, doing so Thursday and Saturday.
Tickets for the Orange & White Game presented by Cherokee Resorts & Entertainment are on sale now at AllVols.com. Start time is 2 p.m. ET on April 12 in Neyland Stadium.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 1/1 Tennessee started its week off with a convincing 14-3 victory over Queens on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Volunteers (23-2) scored 10 combined runs in the fifth and sixth innings to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 12-3 lead before tacking on two more runs in the bottom of the eighth for good measure.
Nine different Vols had hits on the night, including multi-hit efforts from Andrew Fischer (2-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI), Reese Chapman (2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Blake Grimmer (2-for-3, 2 R, 5 RBI).
Grimmer Makes Most of Opportunity
Grimmer earned his first-career start, getting the nod at designated hitter, at made the most of it, setting career highs in hits, runs scored and RBIs. The Michigan native had an RBI groundout in the second inning, a two-run single in the fifth and capped his impressive night with a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, his third long ball of the season.
Plenty of Arms Saw Action
Ten pitchers saw action on Tuesday evening for Tennessee and combined to strike out 18 batters, which was the second most in a game this season.
Redshirt junior lefthander Michael Sharman made his first start at UT and tossed a scoreless first inning to get things started on the right foot. Austin Breedlove followed by striking out the side in the second inning on just 11 pitches before handing the ball off to Bryson Thacker, who worked a clean third inning in his second career appearance.
Brandon Arvidson earned the win after tossing two shutout frames. The junior lefty allowed just one hit and struck out four batters to improve to 2-0 on the year.
Up Next
The Vols travel to South Carolina for a weekend series against the Gamecocks. Game one is slated for a 7 p.m. first pitch on Friday night at Founders Park.
A fifth child flu death has been reported in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Department of Health this death is since the season started on October 1st, for privacy reasons, further details of location and age are withheld from their report.
The department’s weekly flu report has shown two new pediatric deaths in the state from the week of March 9.
Throughout the state, there have been 76 reported flu outbreaks since the season began.
From March 9-15, there was a slight uptick in positive cases but a downturn in outpatient visits in the state.
The Grainger County Sheriff’s Office arrests two people after four pounds of meth was found during a drug bust in Bean Station.
Officials with the sheriff’s office, Drug Task Force, Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at a home on Rocky Summit Road on Friday.
During the search, they found several bags of methamphetamine in a building that John Gardner was staying, the bags weighed about four pounds.
Officers also found an AR-style firearm, several fully-loaded magazines, a rifle and $694 in cash.
The Tennessee Department of Children Services was also called to the home because there was a four-year-old child in the driveway when officers arrived on the scene.
Gardner was charged with possession of methamphetamine for resale, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and maintaining a drug dwelling.
Rachel Emert was also arrested at the home for a warrant out of Claiborne County.
Nashville, TN (WVLT) East Tennessee native and former Gibbs High School student Kenny Chesney is set to enter the Country Music Hall of Fame.
From Luttrell, Tennessee, Chesney has earned 16 platinum albums, more than 50 top-ten country hits and 23 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart.
Chesney spent time in Knoxville before making it big in the country music world and attended Gibbs High School, the same alma mater as fellow country star Morgan Wallen.
With hits like “The Good Stuff,” ”There Goes My Life” and “The Boys of Fall,” Chesney has been voted CMA Entertainer of the Year four times: in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
From Luttrell, Tennessee, Chesney has earned 16 platinum albums, more than 50 top-ten country hits and 23 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart. (Courtesy: Country Music Hall of Fame via You Tube)
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) UPDATE 3/25: A Roane County school bus driver is now facing a slew of charges after a crash Monday morning that injures two students.
Officials with the Tennessee Highway Patrol say 64-year-old Paul Perrin was driving the bus on Ponders Gap Road just before 8:00 a.m. when it went off the right side of the road, down an embankment and came to a stop against a tree. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
Twenty-one students were on board the bus at the time of the crash; two were injured in the incident.
THP says Perrin has been charged with false reporting, reckless endangerment, child abuse, aggravated reckless driving, due car and violating the hands-free law.
ORIGINAL STORY: The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating after two students are injured in a school bus crash in Roane County.
THP says 64-year-old Paul Perrin was driving the bus on Ponders Gap Road yesterday (Monday) morning when it went off the right side of the road and went down an embankment, coming to a stop against a tree. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
21 students on board the bus at the time of the crash, two were injured and their conditions have not been released.
THP says charges are pending against Perrin. District Attorney General Russell Johnson says the charges are related to Perrin being on his cell phone when he ran off the road.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) For the first time in almost 50 years, Rural Metro Fire will begin charging its non-subscribers for emergency medical services.
The department, making that announcement Monday before Knox County commissioners, says it will start charging non-subscribers a flat fee of $600 per call beginning sometime after April 15.
Officials shared that first responder medical missions, such as automobile wrecks, account for about 60% of all of Rural Metro’s calls for service and that fee-for-service charges can no longer financially sustain the company’s local operations.
Though it charges non-subscribers for responding to fires on a per-call basis, Rural Metro has not charged non-subscribers for first responder medical services since it started Knox County operations in 1977.
Rural Metro says residential subscriptions for the department’s services run an average of $425 a year and vary based on the size of the home.
The department said it will start charging non-subscribers a flat fee of $600 per call beginning sometime after April 15. (Courtesy: Rural Metro Fire)
The Rossini Festival is Knoxville Opera’s annual International Street Fair that celebrates the global impact on the music, food, art, and culture of East Tennessee.
Throughout the festival, the public is treated to non-stop entertainment on four outdoor stages showcasing opera, classical, jazz, gospel, ethnic music, ballet, modern, and ethnic dance. Attendees can purchase from scores of food vendors and more than 75 artisans throughout the day, while The Y FunZone keeps children entertained. More than half a million residents of Knox County and the surrounding area have enjoyed the Rossini Festival over the years.
Fun and family-oriented. Admission is always free.
