Definitely not what you want to hear in the early morning hours in downtown Nashville…
People who live downtown, or are staying in hotels, are probably used to being woken up by loud music, screaming drunks, and all kinds of noises that you regularly hear in big cities.
But there’s no doubt that plenty of people got quite a scare this morning when they were woken up by the sound of explosions in downtown Nashville after a fire at a parking garage caused massive damage to the structure.
The fire broke out at the Nashville Library Parking Garage on 6th Avenue North around 1:30 this morning, and firefighters arrived to find the fourth and fifth floors of the garage, as well as multiple vehicles, engulfed in flames.
The parking garage connects to the Renaissance Hotel across the street, which was evacuated as a precaution as smoke billowed into the hotel.
According to WKRN and the Nashville Fire Department, the explosions were caused by burning tires, gas tanks and gas cans that are stored in the garage. And the fire damaged several vehicles owned by Metro Nashville, including ATVs and street sweepers, as well as many personal vehicles.
The fire was eventually extinguished by 4 AM, but MNPD says the damage to the building caused the ramp between the third and fourth floors of the building to collapse, and Nashville Fire says that the fifth floor of the parking deck also collapsed.
No injuries were reported, but the garage has been deemed unsafe to enter and the Nashville Fire Department is waiting on the Nashville Department of Transportation Structural Engineer Team to inspect the structure before beginning their investigation.
You can see the scary scene that unfolded and hear the explosions in several videos shared to social media by residents of downtown Nashville and visitors staying in nearby hotels:
@alexiskolapanas 1:30 am downtown Nashville. My sister woke me up and said she started seeing black smoke and banging noises . We INSTANTLY called the police and I stayed on phone with them telling them what was going on and stayed on phone until we heard the fire trucks. So plz do not come at me with someone saying “call conceirge” we called the police first. We started to smell the smoke in our apartment and since people were asleep wanted to atleast make sure ppl were informed
@sadbiznatch3000 Nashville Public Library caught fire around 1:30am. We called 911—firefighters were already on the way. We’re safe and hoping everyone else is too. Cars were literally exploding. #nashville#nashvillelibrary#nashvillefire#fyp
@615nav #615nav #nashville #tennessee #news #fire cc:wsmvtv
Obviously the parking garage is going to be closed for quite some time, and the Nashville Public Library’s downtown branch will also be closed at least through today as they evaluate the damage.
Luckily nobody is believed to be injured, and the Nashville Fire Department reports that they don’t plan to conduct a search and rescue operation as all firefighters who responded to the scene are accounted for and there are no reports of missing persons from nearby hotels.
The library garage is a popular parking spot not only for visitors to downtown Nashville but is also frequently used by locals. It’s on the outskirts of Broadway, and provides a convenient place to park (and was also the cheapest parking garage in downtown Nashville). I almost always park there when I go downtown, so it’s definitely going to cause issues when it comes to finding parking in the area.
Obviously we don’t yet know the cause of the fire, or a timetable for when the garage will reopen, but I’m going to guess that we’re talking years and not weeks or months. Chances are the building is going to have to be torn down and rebuilt due to all the damage, and that’s not going to be a quick process.
Thankfully it sounds like everybody is safe, but no doubt there are some visitors to Nashville who had a sleepless night due to the chaos.
