Meth making may have sparked Friday shed fire

West Knox firefighters and Knox County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene of an outbuilding fire on Howser Street Friday night.

West Knox Chief Darryl Baker said firefighters were paged to the scene off of Standard Ave. about 6:40 p.m.

The shed, located about 30 yards off of the road, was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.

“One of our firefighters saw the smoke as he was headed home from work and called 911,” Baker said.

The property also housed a singlewide mobile home, but the windows were broken and other vandalism had occurred to the abandoned structure.

Baker said law enforcement and firefighters had been called out to the scene approximately two weeks ago in response to complaints of possible meth manufacturing.

“There were needles and other drug paraphernalia just laying on the ground,” Baker said in describing what firefighters found previously.

Baker said because of that and with no other property in danger, firefighters elected to let the shed burn and contact the sheriff’s department to open an investigation.

“We let it burn until it was almost out and then extinguished the remains,” Baker said adding that no active meth labs were found at the scene.