West Tulsa neighborhood upset about emergency fire response

Thursday, May 5th 2005, 1:07 pm

By: News On 6

Some people in a west Tulsa neighborhood say it took firefighters too long to respond to a house fire. It happened near 57th Street South and 38th West Avenue early Thursday morning.

The neighborhood is on the border between two fire districts, which might have caused some confusion.

News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims talked with some upset neighbors.

The home in question falls under the jurisdiction of the Oakhurst Volunteer Fire Department, but just down the street, is Tulsa's jurisdiction. Some people here say it took too long for either department to show up. Julia Baker had a rude and scary awakening. "I just woke up to smoke and my smoke alarms going off and I hurried up and grabbed my kids and got out."

Julia Baker says she started calling 911 as soon as she knew her kids were safe. But she says she waited so long for the fire department she doubted they were ever going to show up. â€œI thought nobody was coming I thought I was just outta luck I thought my house was gonna burn completely and nothing was gonna be done."

Neighbor Rober David: "Itâ€™s really sad. We should have better responses than this. The neighborhood should sign a petition or something to have something done. Cause ya'know this could happen to anybody over here.â€ This neighborhood sits on the border between two fire districts, Tulsa and Oakhurst.

The Oakhurst fire chief says 911 dispatch should have paged his department to fight the fire, but he says there was a breakdown in communication. Oakhurst fire chief Merle Lawson: "lotta lost time on miscommunication somewhere down the line but we need to get it taken care of so something like this doesnâ€™t happen again."

Oakhurst firefighters were able to get the fire under control, but not before the electrical fire caused about $30,000 worth of damage.

Julia Baker just wants to make sure a communication problem doesn't cost anyone else in this area their home.

The News on 6 talked to a spokesperson from 911. They said everything worked on their end. They said the first call about this fire came in at 5:14 AM. And they transferred that call to Oakhurst and even stayed on the line to make sure they got the right address for the fire.

Oakhurst Fire says they plan to work on communication with 911 to make sure they're responding as fast as they can.