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TOOELE — Recently released 911 recordings of calls made on a massive fire that took out 10 homes last week paint a better picture of what witnesses experienced as they watched their community go up in flames.
The families who lived in the houses near 700 South and 500 West in Tooele were still trying to pick up the pieces Tuesday and move forward.
In the hundreds of calls recorded between Tooele County dispatchers and witnesses reporting the fire, you can clearly hear the fear in the callers' voices.
In one recording, a dispatcher answers the call: "911. What is the address of your emergency?"
"I don't know the address," the caller replies, "but there is a fire in the field heading right towards us!"
Another caller tells a dispatcher, "The field across that street is on fire!"
"OK," the dispatcher replies. "We have the fire department paged and they are on their way."
The recordings of those frantic moments give new perspective on the suspicious fire that burned 10 homes and damaged eight others. Lynne Weaver, whose home was destroyed, said listening to the calls brings her right back to that day.
"It was so quick and it just, I mean ... it only took 30 seconds to get across that field," Weaver said.
Since losing her home, Weaver is living in a 300-square-foot Holiday Inn hotel room with her daughter and grandson.
"It's like OK, well, it sounds all great and all: You're in a hotel and somebody else cleans it and, you know, it's like ... you get to eat out all the time," Weaver said. "Well, it's not as great as it sounds."
The family is utilizing any and every space: stacking food on tables, drying dishes in the bathroom, and setting up a playpen in the corner. Weaver said they're preparing for this hotel to be their home for a while.
"We could potentially be living in this hotel room for six months. So if, you know, people wanted to bring (donations) ... it's kind of like we don't have any room," she said.
While it's been hard thinking about what she's lost, Weaver is trying to stay optimistic, remembering that she and her family still have each other.
"There's nothing that you can do to change it," she said. "So you can sit around and cry about it, and yes it's sad, but you can do that. But it doesn't make it go away; it doesn't change it."
Weaver said she doesn't know how long she'll be living at the hotel, but she has made some friendly neighbors here. She's said there are about three other displaced families also calling the hotel home.
As for the fire itself, investigators are calling it suspicious but have released a suspected cause. Jesse Barger, 24, was taken in for questioning by police last week because he was believed to be in the area when the fire started. He was booked into the Tooele County Jail on outstanding warrants but has not been accused of anything relating to the fire.
Police are still asking for tips from the public for information related to the fire investigation. Calls can be made to 435-882-8900 or 435-882-5600.
