Colo. Sheriff's Office Was Unaware FD Was Making Evacs

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. -- When firefighters with Inter-Canyon Fire/Rescue went door-to-door to warn Lower North Fork residents to evacuate a wildfire, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office was not aware of those evacuation attempts, 7NEWS has confirmed

Investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office told 7NEWS that North Creek Fire command did not call for deputies to go door-to-door to try to evacuate homes until about 5 p.m. on March 26. That was the same time dispatchers were getting ready to put out the first reverse notification call, text and email announcing the evacuation.

On Monday, Inter-Canyon Fire/Rescue confirmed the department's volunteer firefighters started to go door-to-door between 4:20 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on March 26.

Inter-Canyon firefighters were fighting the fire near the homes of Sam and Linda Lucas and Ann Appel. The Lucas' and Appel died in the fire.

The firefighters started to go door-to-door to warn people to evacuate based on their own observations.

"There were no flames up in that area at that point, but the smoke was coming into the area," said Inter-Canyon Fire/Rescue chief Dave MacBean.

Between 4:20 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., an Inter-Canyon firefighter drove onto the driveway of Sam Lucas. The firefighter startled Lucas as he was packing up a vehicle with belongings.

The firefighter told Lucas, "It's time to go."

According to Inter-Canyon Fire/Rescue, Lucas responded with a remark about his home's fire suppression system.

The firefighter told Lucas that information on the fire suppression system was available to responding firefighters.

Lucas repeated a statement regarding the fire suppression system. The firefighter said, "Right now you need to get out of here." The firefighter then left the Lucas residence to alert other homeowners.

911 Callers Told No Evacuations Until 5:07 P.M.

7NEWS went back and reviewed the 911 calls from the day of the fire.

While Inter-Canyon firefighters were going door-to-door to warn residents to evacuate, dispatchers repeatedly told callers that there were no evacuations.

4:44 p.m.

Dispatch: "As far as we know it's about 10 acres. There's still crews working on it. No evacuations at this time."

4:51 p.m.

Caller: "It's a controlled burn that they were doing a couple of days ago, I guess they didn't put it out, did they?"

Dispatch: "Well, I really don't know what happened, sir, but it's reignited, so as of right now we don't have any evacuations in place."

It wasn't until 5:07 p.m., when the first 911 caller was told there were evacuations being made.

5:07 p.m.

Dispatch: "As of now, though, we are doing some evacuations, but nowhere near you. It's going the other direction."

7NEWS To Receive Fire & Dispatch Audio Recordings On Wednesday

On Wednesday, 7NEWS expects to get audio recordings which include communication between dispatchers and Inter-Canyon Fire, Elk Creek Fire and North Fork Fire.

Last week, 7NEWS received the call logs that dispatchers type out as they communicate with fire personnel and deputies on the ground. That log was missing some information.

A Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said that dispatchers likely stopped their written logs when they became inundated with phone calls.

She said that because all communications are recorded, the missing portions would be revealed in the audio recordings.