COPPERHILL, Tenn. (WATE) — A historic web page in Polk County was deemed a full decline right after a fireplace early Tuesday early morning, getting with it some Olympic history. The Ocoee Whitewater Center, around Ducktown, Tenn. in the southeastern aspect of the point out was the canoe slalom venue for the 1996 Summertime Olympics in Atlanta.
Crews in Polk County, as effectively as the USDA Forest Company, are even now doing the job the scene of the Ocoee Whitewater Middle and assessing the destruction. No accidents had been described from the fireplace.
The Forest Company mentioned in a release afterwards Tuesday morning that firefighters from Polk County responded to the fire and were being in a position to get it less than manage, but the creating was a complete loss. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the lead to of the fire, the Forest Company explained, and no one particular is allowed on web page till their investigation is entire.
The Forest Services also mentioned with the Ocoee Whitewater Center shut, some connected trails are also closed which include:
- Rhododendron Path
- Bear Paw Loop Path
- Old Copper Street Trail
- 64 Connector Path
- Chestnut Mountain Loop/Bear Paw Connector Trail
The Polk County 911 Crisis Group District claimed on its social media website page Tuesday early morning that Highway 64 had been entirely shut down from Freeway 314 to Ducktown owing to the fireplace at the whitewater heart. There was also a tractor-trailer hearth along Highway 64 between mile markers 16-17 prior to the whitewater centre fireplace.
Officials at the scene explained to our ABC affiliate station WTVC Information Channel 9 that the historic setting up was a whole reduction and many crews from Tennessee, Ga and North Carolina have been on the scene. A hearth captain instructed WTVC that the fireplace was still left to smolder out for the subsequent number of times.
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By 7:38 a.m. Tuesday, the Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace claimed Highway 64 had reopened. The result in of the hearth at the Ocoee Whitewater Center is underneath investigation by the TBI.
“First, we are just so grateful that no just one was wounded all through the fire and grateful to our companions for their guidance in having the hearth under command and investigating the result in,” Mike Wright, Acting Forest Supervisor for the Cherokee Nationwide Forest, claimed. “The Ocoee Whitewater Middle was a distinctive internet site not just right here on the Cherokee National Forest, but across the Forest Support. It is a challenging reduction for us.”