No injuries, pets lost in house fire

Residents of a Powers Avenue home in Tallassee are combing through the ashes looking for anything left following an early Friday morning fire.

According to Elmore County 911 dispatch data, a call was placed to the dispatch center in Tallassee via 911 at 4:15 a.m. When the firefighters arrived, the home was engulfed in flames.

Sarah Harp lives just down the road but her mother is a resident in the home.

“Everyone was trying to sleep,” Harp said. “Everyone got out but three dogs. My dog got out and was run over when the Tallassee fire truck came.”

One resident wasn’t at home. Harp said he had been admitted to the hospital on Thursday.

“It would have been difficult to get him out,” Harp said.

By 9 a.m. the fire was out and Harp was sifting through an area where Christmas gifts were being stored. She found her son Caleb’s Bible. Its cover was charred. It was wet, but when opened, the text was readable.

“We are also looking in the same area for an urn with my grandpa’s ashes,” Harp said. 

The home is a total loss. 

Harp said the fire started around an electrical outlet in the bathroom.

“It was ruled accidental and an electrical situation,” Harp said.

Assistant Tallassee fire chief David Rogers said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

“We want to speak with the police officers who were first on the scene,” Rogers said Friday about 2 p.m. “They are currently at home in bed and that will happen when they come back on shift later in the day.”

The data from the Powers Avenue fire called into 911 was been examined by Rogers, Elmore County 911 director Chris Dozier and Elmore County EMA director Keith Barnett.

Rogers said a call about the fire was made to the Elmore County 911 dispatch was received by the Tallassee call center at 4:15 a.m. and entered into the system’s CAD software within seconds.

There was no one at the Tallassee Fire Department as it is a volunteer department. 

“Firefighters were paged from their homes by 4:17 a.m.,” Rogers said. “The dispatcher also paged out Friendship (Volunteer Fire Department) and called Tallapoosa County dispatch to page out Reeltown (Volunteer Fire Department) and the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Department. The Tallassee Police Department and Haynes Ambulance were also dispatched to the scene by the Tallassee dispatcher.

Rogers said a fire engine and a ladder truck left the Tallassee Fire Department at 4:28 a.m. and arrived at Powers Avenue at 4:30 a.m.

“That is great timing,” Barnett said. “A firefighter was called out of their home, went to the fire station, got suited up and got on the scene in 13 minutes. That is amazing for a volunteer fire department early in the morning.”

Barnett and Dozier said all 911 equipment and call centers were operating properly at the time.

Barrett said if someone hangs up before a call is answered, the system records it and places it in front of the dispatcher to call back.

"Even a half ring,” Barrett said. 

Dozier said there were two abandoned calls to 911 in the time frame of the fire. He said the Tallassee dispatcher immediately used the equipment to call the number back but it went unanswered.

There are three emergency dispatcher centers in Elmore County in Tallassee, Wetumpka and Millbrook. In the case a call goes unanswered after five rings, it then rings at an additional center and the original center until it is answered.

Barnett said the county also has a back up system to the 911 call system used currently encase it goes down.

Rogers said emergencies cause questions about response time to come up.

“It is highly stressful for everyone, especially those trying to call,” Rogers said. “Seconds seem like minutes and minutes seem like hours.”