The fire began around 9:30 p.m. at the Belcourt Park Apartments on Belcourt Avenue.
No injuries were reported but the building has heavy water damage and smoke damage to the first and second floors while the remaining floors were not impacted, according to the Nashville Fire Department.
Fire officials reported crews arrived to find light smoke coming from the first floor of the five-story building and determined the fire was between the first and second floors, originating in the building’s community space.
Firefighters guided the residents outside though many were self-evacuating due to the fire alarm going off.
The Nashville Electric Service cut power to the building and all 76 units were evacuated for the night.
The American Red Cross was contacted to help the displaced residents. Those with pets were escorted back into the building to retrieve them before they were relocated.
“There were no real hazards other than locating the source of the fire when they arrived on scene. Between the first and second floor literally means that the fire was located in the ceiling of the floor so they had to search around for it a bit to locate the source of the fire. But as soon as they did that they were able to quickly extinguish it, but the sprinkler system did activate before we arrived on the scene. So that is going to attribute to a lot of the water damage that is going to be seen in this building,” explained Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
