Jenks fire crews were back on the scene of a house fire Friday morning as hot spots briefly reignited.
As investigators work to determine the cause of the fire in a neighborhood near Highway 75 and 111th Street, neighbors want answers about the quality of their 911 service.
WATCH: House fire sparks concern about Jenks 911 system:
Several neighbors tell 2 News they tried to call 911 to report the house fire, but couldn’t get through.
Debbie Hayes said there was never a ring; only an “unknown” displayed on her cell phone. The land line wouldn’t go through, either.
She’s worried about the impending storm.
“You can have power lines down, you can have another fire—we need to make sure when we call 911, it goes through the first time,” she said. “I have to have that comfort, and right now, I don’t have the comfort that it’s going to work.”
2 News also spoke to Stephen Emerson. He grew up in the home that burned down. It is likely destroyed, and investigators are still trying to determine a cause.
“Still in a little bit of shock, we’ve lived here for 23 years,” he said.
Emerson has since moved out of the house, but says his parents and two other siblings still lived there. His dad was making dinner when the fire started in the garage.
“They had just been cleaning it out that day to put cars in for the storm, and they went back out, and it was on fire,” he said.
2 News has been trying to get answers about the 911 system.
We put calls in to the mayor, city manager, city spokesperson, the fire department, and the police department spokesperson.
On Jan. 23, we heard back from officials, who said, in part:
911 technology is very reliable but not 100% effective at all times. Our established backup procedure is to roll calls to Glenpool when needed. At this time, we have no evidence that any calls were missed; however, we were made aware that some calls may have dropped from the queue. We are currently working with AT&T to determine why this occurred.
At the time of the incident, the dispatch center was on the phone with two occupants of the home and was also handling other incoming calls. No residents have reported any issues with reaching 911.
During the incident, all calls that came through were answered by our two on-duty dispatchers, and return calls were made for any calls that appeared to be missed. Fire and Police units arrived quickly on scene and established command. For any additional information, please contact the Fire Department.
We will not be making any further comments on this matter until the severe weather has passed. Emergency personnel arrived on scene within an appropriate timeframe, and our dispatchers performed their duties as expected. Any additional questions should be directed to the Fire Department.
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