Around 6:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2021, somebody set fire to the Planned Parenthood building on 710 N. Cherry Street in Knoxville, TN.

After receiving a call at 6:39 a.m., the City of Knoxville Fire Department arrived on the scene around 6:43 a.m. The fire had already extended through the roof and spread throughout the building.

Four hours later, the fire had been extinguished. Nothing but parts of the building’s frame remained.

Assistant fire chief and public information officer Mark Wilbanks talked about the remains of the healthcare facility.

“The building is a total loss,” Wilbanks said. “It is literally the frame around the outside of the building in places. It will have to be completely taken down all the way and rebuilt. There’s nothing to save from the structure.”

Fortunately, the building was under renovation and had been closed for a couple weeks before the fire, so no one was injured. However, this has set back the health center from reopening sooner than they had hoped.

Planned Parenthood for Tennessee and North Mississippi’s CEO Ashley Coffield talked about this setback.

“Before the fire, we had closed on Dec. 8 to wrap up a renovation and expansion project that we were nearly finished with,” Coffield said. “So, we only expected to be closed for just a few weeks, and we were going to reopen with our brand new health center that was more welcoming for our patients, able to serve more patients because it was larger. We also had areas for more community based programs, like comprehensive sex education classes and our advocacy programs.”

“I won’t lie, this sets us back. The fire erased the time and thoughtful energy and resources of what is a relatively small Planned Parenthood,” Coffield said.

A few days after the fire, the Knoxville Fire Department announced that the fire was an act of arson. They weren’t able to share the evidence that they had found, but they confirmed that it pointed towards somebody intentionally setting the building on fire.

Wilbanks talked about this decision. He said that it had taken them longer to collect and process the evidence due to the fire’s magnitude, the debris of the fire and the weather conditions during their search, as well as the potential of it being accidentally started. But, their current information has determined it to be arson.

“It’s a totality of everything they find on the scene, and that’s just a lot of information to process,” Wilbanks said. “It’s a lot on a house fire for our guys to take a look at, so imagine … tenfold information coming at you that you’ve got to process.”

In the wake of the fire, Planned Parenthood is still committed to providing healthcare in Knoxville. Along with abortion services, the center had provided access to sexual education, gender affirming hormone care, birth control and lower priced contraceptives, IUDs and implants, well-person care, STI testing and cancer screenings.

Coffield said that they are working with Telehealth to continue providing resources, like gender affirming hormone care, for their patients. They are also actively working on giving referrals, which their call center has on hand for patients who call in.

“We’re trying to find providers to expand our Telehealth options for our Knoxville patients, that’s number one,” Coffield said. “Number two, we’re trying to make sure that we’re making appropriate referrals for our Knoxville patients to other providers locally or in the region. And number three, we’re looking at all of our options for opening back as quickly as possible.”

Coffield said that they are currently evaluating the damage to the site of the burned building. They are waiting for assessments on aspects like the plumbing so that they can begin plans on rebuilding the center, but it’s unclear when construction will begin. She did have a message for the 4,000 patients that the center serves annually.

“I would tell our patients to please call us because we will do everything we can to help you, whether it’s through Telehealth or a referral, and I would also tell you that we will be back in some capacity as quickly as possible,” Coffield said. “We’re devastated that our relationship was interrupted by this violent incident and they can have every reassurance that we are going to be back in Knoxville.”

For students at the University of Tennessee, there are resources available from the Planned Parenthood Generation Action Council (PPGAC) student organization. Senior advisor Gabby Magness, secretary Allison Farley and president Mack Hall provided comments on the situation and what they are doing to help on campus.

“PPGAC’s goal is to provide education, resources and a safe space for all students on campus,” Hall said.

The student group aims to bring reproductive rights awareness and sexual education to students on campus, as well as point students to where they can obtain necessary resources. They were devastated by the news of the fire.

“I think it was really heartbreaking for a lot of us,” Farley said. “Seeing a place that had come to mean so much to us suddenly gone is very hard. Our work does not end, though, if anything I think we will do more this semester, to educate students and create a safe space on campus.”

Despite some fear that Hall expressed in relation to the arson, they said that the group plans on entering the spring semester invigorated to rebuild and grow as a student organization.

“In the spring semester we are definitely going to spread information about the alternative ways students can access their necessary care without the health center,” Farley said. “We have not begun brainstorming beyond that point, but I encourage any student with an idea to come join us!”

They hope that more students will join them and support the organization going forward.

“I hope that PPGAC will grow and continue to be an important part of campus life,” Magness said.

With rebuilding in the very early stages, Coffield plans on opening a temporary location sometime this year. For now, they are trying to provide as many resources and referrals as they can while they figure out their future in Knoxville.

“I think that this attack on our facility was a reminder for people in the region how important it is to have a Planned Parenthood, and the community has really rallied in support of us and so many people have stepped up with financial support and with their moral support around our mission and the services that we provide,” Coffield said. “So, I feel like we’re going to come back stronger than ever. I know we will.”

At this time, there has not been any new information on who started the fire. Wilbanks and the Knoxville Fire Department encourage anyone with information to reach out to them. They have a tip hotline that can be reached at 1-800-762-3017 or through email at [email protected]. They are offering a reward up to $10,000 for any information towards this ongoing investigation.