Lightning may be cause of Tarragon Hills fire

By Debbie Ingram

Published: August 17, 2008

Barbara Dobbins lost her clothes, her furniture and the roof over her head in a Sunday afternoon fire at Tarragon Hills Apartments on Westgate Parkway.

Yet as the fire burned for more than two hours, Dobbins remained oddly detached. She stood in a light rain and watched Building F – her building and her home of six years – burn until it was completely destroyed.

“Everything’s in there,” she said.

Firefighters in turnout gear worked steady as police rerouted traffic on Westgate and told the curious to stay back. Light and power crews arrived to assist. Neighbors sat on their decks and watched as smoke filled the sky. A lot of smoke filled the sky.

“I don’t think it’s really hit me yet,” said Dobbins.

Someone asks where she will go and if she has family in town. She says her relatives are in Enterprise. Her 16-year-old daughter, LeKeisha, is in the Northview High School Color Guard. All her equipment is gone, she said. Homework and school books are gone.

“I guess,” Dobbins says absent-mindedly, “I guess I’ll stay in a hotel tonight.”

Teresa Creel shares a black umbrella with her friend and offers comfort.

“They are just things,” Creel said.

Dobbins shakes her head. She knows that.

She draws near as Dothan Fire Department officials give official statements to the media about the fire. Public Information Director Chris Etheredge says the city received a 911 call at 6:08 p.m. from a Tarragon Hills resident who said smoke was flowing from all four eaves of the roof in a neighboring building. Flames were already visible from Westgate Parkway two minutes later when the first units arrived.

About 30 minutes earlier, Dobbins said she and her daughter were enjoying a quiet afternoon in Apartment F-79.

“Then that electrical storm came up and I heard something that went ‘Pop’ real loud,” she said. “I knew lightning struck something. The TV went off and I said, ‘Oh, Lord.’ Lightning struck something.”
Then came a knock on the door.

“The first units upon arriving performed an immediate search and rescue,” Etheredge said. This included knocking on doors and yelling out.

“Anybody in here? Anybody here?” Fire Chief Larry Williams demonstrated. “We do a rapid inside search. At that time there was little smoke in the building. It was all above the ceiling.”

Dobbins said she pulled on some blue jeans, got her daughter and grabbed her purse. She opened the door to the sight of smoke in the outside stairwell. Once clear of the apartment, she moved her car away from the building.

“It’s good you did that,” people tell her.

An elderly neighbor who also evacuated sits in Dobbins car to get away from the smoke.

“I was a nervous wreck,” she said, “trying to dial my husband at work.”

When firefighters arrived, they found the fire so big they had to call in the large pumper trucks to hit the source with large volumes of water from multiple angles.

“There was a lot of fire when we got here,” Williams said. “The fire had advanced rapidly. The entire attic was full of fire.”

The department utilized five fire engines, two ladder trucks, about 24 firefighters and a half dozen support personnel.

“I’m surprised it’s still standing,” Williams said of the building after a solid hour of water had been shot into the empty hole that was the roof.

The first chore of the fire marshal will be to either rule out or confirm lightning as the originator. Williams said many residents interviewed reported hearing the loud pop that Dobbins did.

He believes the residents of all 16 apartments made it out safely. All residents were meeting in the complex office with Red Cross representatives. Williams said he would try to determine who was home when the fire started and who was not. He wants to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Dobbins said based on what she saw, it appears the fire started in a unit that recently became empty. Firemen say all 16 units were rented out, however.

As rain beaded up on her face, Dobbins stared down at herself. The white T-shirt and dark jeans, she noted, are her only clothes now. The family had no renter’s insurance.

“They are just things,“ Creels words echo in her head.

Tarragon Hills Apartments are owned by Ross Carter of Enterprise.