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As we previously reported DeKalb County, Georgia officials launched an investigation into a house fire early Sunday morning. Firefighters responded twice to Ann Bartlett’s home. It was the actions during the first response that resulted in the four fire department officers – Officer in Charge William Greene, Capt. Tony L. Motes, Capt. Sell Caldwell, and Battalion Chief Lesley Clark being put on leave with pay. Today a report into the fire was released by DeKalb County. Here’s more from an article by Jaye Watson from WXIA-TV:
“Our family wants to tell you what a wonderful and kind woman my mother was.”
Ruth Bartlett and her two sisters and their children stand in front of the home their mother Ann lived in for 41 years. The 74 year old Bartlett called 911 shortly after 1 a.m. sunday morning to report that an oxygen device she used for a pulmonary condition had just set the house on fire.
In a copy of the 911 call made by Bartlett you can hear her say her name and complete address. The operator tells her to evacuate the house and then Bartlett says “hurry!” before the phone was disconnected. The operator tried repeatedly to call Barlett back to no avail.
Fire crews arrived just 12 minutes after the call but in a copy of a report from Dekalb County Fire Department Incident Investigation fire crews ‘failed to establish incident command.’ The report also says ‘Houses on either side of 1687 Houghton Court North had visible addresses, and although not in exact sequence(1691 and 1686), should have provided a clue of the location of 1687 Houghton Court North.
Ruth Bartlett, who met with County and Fire officials thursday morning,tells what happened when crews arrived.
“Those on the scene said they looked around from their trucks here in the cul de sac but did not see any evidence of fire. They observed that our family home up the hill was dark. They did not get out of their trucks and their trucks left the scene at 1:22 am seven minutes after they arrived. No one walked up this hill to her house. No one knocked on anyone’s door asking questions.”
More than five hours later at 6:40 a.m. neighbors called 911 to report Bartlett’s house engulfed in flames. Crews found her body just inside her garage.
Ruth Bartlett says, “We believe the electricity must have gone out because the phone went dead and the electric door opener for the garage would not have gone up. She perished there by the door inside the garage.”
Ruth Bartlett and her sisters can’t bear to think what if? What if the firefighters had walked up the driveway? What if they had followed the ‘360 protocol’ which calls for them to walk around the structure and look inside? They believe the firefighters would have found the fire, and their mother, alive.
Bartlett’s children have asked for a personal apology from the firefighters who left the scene. They say their mother, an Atlanta native, lived for her children and grandchildren. A horrible mistake has taken a matriarch away from her family.
“She paid her taxes in Dekalb county for 41 years but when she needed Dekalb County they did not find her. They did not find the person that made that 911 call.”
