STATter 911 Exclusive: 911 Recordings from Lorton, VA Fire

Late today, STATter 911 received the 911 recordings from the May 23rd fatal fire in Lorton, Virginia. This is the fire where Interim Fairfax County Fire Chief David Rohr said crews “should have found” 49 year old Debra Chiles.

So far, officials have not been able to say why, with the relatively small amount of fire, the body of Debra Chiles was not found until more than a half-hour after firefighters arrived on the scene. The body was eventually discovered exactly where Chiles said she was — the third floor bathroom.

Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department spokesman Dan Schmidt said today that a post-incident analysis of the fire is continuing. Schmidt previously confirmed that a critique was recently held with the companies involved in the incident.

The 911 recordings, released through a Freedom of Information Act request, include the final words of Debra Chiles. The third conversation with 911, as Chiles is overcome by the smoke, is very difficult to listen to. We have aired only a very small portion of this call in an effort to shed some light on what happened May 23rd.

You can listen to the first two conversations Debra Chiles had with 911 and a neighbor’s 911 call here.

For my 6:00 p.m. report click here.

For our previous coverage of this incident, including a timeline of events, click here.

In the next couple of weeks we will have the fireground transmissions for you.