Franklin, TN – Franklin Firefighters quickly extinguished a bakery fire last night (06/13/2021) in historic downtown Franklin.
There were dispatched to Merridee’s Breadbasket Bakery & Restaurant, 110 4th Ave. South, at 5:23 PM for a commercial building fire. The business was closed at the time of the fire and there were no occupants inside, however occupants in adjoining businesses and a 911 caller reported heavy smoke inside the building and a burning smell.
Tower 1 crew forced entry to the restaurant and found fire on the griddle, which had been left on. They manually activated the hood system, which suppressed most of the fire, then used fire extinguishers to complete extinguishment. Firefighters searched the building and checked for extension throughout. No extension was found and the building was cleared. The fire was under control at 5:33 PM. Firefighters remained on scene to ventilate smoke from the building. They turned it back over to the owners once air monitoring and the investigation were complete.
Franklin Fire Marshal Andy King said the fire was contained to the cooking appliance and ventilation hood. He said it was too small to activate the automatic fire sprinkler system, which was installed in the building in 2019 by owner Thomas Shell.
King estimated damage at $1,000. The business is closed Monday for clean-up, and expected to re-open Tuesday.
