2521 West Division Street [Mt Juliet Elementary School] - At 8:00 AM, Mt Juliet Police and Fire Communications received a call from someone reporting black smoke coming from a vent near the front of the building. They stated they heard a pop and flames became visible. Firefighters were immediately dispatched to the scene. While en route, dispatch advised responding units that in addition to other 911 reports of smoke and fire, they had received a call from the alarm company advising of duct smoke and waterflow alarms.

The first arriving unit was Deputy Chief Christopher Allen [Chief-102] who performed a 360 survey of the structure and initially did not see any signs of smoke or fire. Upon further investigation, There was evidence of a fire in a wall mounted hotel-style HVAC unit, but all smoke and fire had ceased. The fire had been knocked down by the school's sprinkler system.

Immediately behind Chief-102 was Squad-103 [C Shift] commanded by Lieutenant Drew Noland. One 1-3/4" crosslay was stretched to the door and the crew forced entry. Once inside the classroom, it was evident that the sprinklers had indeed fully extinguished the fire, but there was extensive water damage to several classrooms in that wing of the school.

Ladder-111 [C Shift] with Captain Mike Leal arrived a few moments later. 2 Volunteer Firefighters arrived on the scene in their personal vehicles and they were directed to locate the sprinkler room and shutdown the water flow to the sprinkler system. Shortly after that, Tower-114 and a crew of 4 more volunteers arrived. Crews were then able to start salvage operations and remove property from the effected classrooms, as well as evacuating as much water from the school as possible.

In all, about 6 classrooms were effected by waterflow from the sprinklers.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.