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Sometime before she lost consciousness Jan. 23, Renae Patton calmly told an Allen County emergency dispatcher about the fire that would eventually trap her and her roommates in the bathroom of their second-floor apartment.
"Hi, um, we have a, um, fire in a stairwell, we live in an apartment," said Patton, before giving her address of 5163 Coventry Parkway, in the Willows of Coventry complex, and being transferred to a Fort Wayne city dispatcher.
One of her roommates, Jennifer Spurgeon or Lara Punches, is heard in the background saying, "Shut the door! Shut the door!" before the young women begin coughing. The 50-second snippet ends with Patton telling a city dispatcher, "We woke up to smoke and … "
A recorded copy of that call and other snippets of 911 calls were obtained exclusively by The Journal Gazette on Friday. Those taped recordings, coupled with a large packet of files city officials released Friday, reveal more details that have been slow to trickle out about the early-morning fire that left the three teenage International Business College students dead.
The packet of material - released by city officials because it is no longer needed for an investigation - seems to show that the women were rescued from the building about 13 minutes after the first fire crews arrived. The material details how the fire was fought and how one crew "placed their own safety secondary to the rescue of the victims."
The released documents also include material showing that investigators looked into arson as a possible cause as well as more evidence that the fire was electrical in nature.
Yet to be released are files pertaining to accusations of firefighter misconduct at the scene; a definitive cause of the fire; the city's complete 911 tapes regarding the fire; and taped communications among emergency responders at the scene.
Attorneys for several entities trying to complete investigations into the fire to determine whether lawsuits will be filed want all that information, but the city maintains it does not have to release those records for investigatory reasons.
Calvert Miller, the local attorney representing Dial Equities, which owns the apartment complex, said his client is prepared to go before a judge to argue why more records should be released.
Firefighters from two nearby city firehouses were dispatched to the scene at 5:06 a.m. and arrived at 5:13 a.m. and 5:14 a.m. They were met with an apartment engulfed in flames.
Patton, Punches and Spurgeon had holed themselves up in their bathroom to escape the smoke and noxious gas that was filling the apartment.
One fire crew was initially instructed to rescue the women, but it was the Rescue 1 crew from downtown, dispatched at 5:06 a.m. from eight miles away, that eventually went inside the apartment.
Fire Chief Pete Kelly said an allegation of misconduct against one firefighter at the scene neither affected how the department fought the fire nor interfered with rescuing the women, though he would not say what the firefighter was accused of doing wrong.
Previously, Kelly said crews first on the scene could not get into the apartment because of heavy fire and smoke. Rescue 1 arrived just as a window of opportunity to get inside opened, Kelly said.
It's still unclear when Rescue 1 arrived at the scene, but Kelly said - and records seem to confirm - that its crew members immediately used ladders already set up by other crews to enter the building's second floor. Members from other crews followed, according to the documents.
"As we advanced the hose line down the hallway there was fire to the right, left + infront of us," wrote one firefighter from Rescue 1 afterward.
"It had burned through the ceiling and the floor was getting weak under us."
Further reports state that the stairway leading to the apartment was burned away and at least part of the floor of the apartment had collapsed.
The crew found all three women unconscious in or near the bathroom.
Spurgeon, from Winamac, and Patton, from Ottawa, Ohio, would both be declared dead from smoke inhalation in the following three days. Punches, from Defiance, Ohio, died Feb. 3 from severe brain damage caused by smoke inhalation, according to the documents.
It's not entirely clear when the women were taken from the building, but field notes written by District Chief Greg Jeffries and Capt. Rick Godsey have an entry that reads, "5:26:39 Victims coming out window." Godsey later wrote in a report that the crew from Rescue 1 should be commended.
"It should be noted that this crew went far beyond their duty in effecting this search," he wrote in a report.
Though an official cause has not been released, investigators have said the fire was likely caused by an electrical socket in the apartment below where the women were trapped.
An Allen County 911 call also seems to identify the outlet as the origin.
"Our, uh, apartment is catching fire," a woman calmly reported to Allen County dispatchers. "There's a fire coming out of the electrical socket."
Upstairs, the three women were on their phones to dispatchers and their parents, all of whom were apparently able to stay in contact with the women the entire time. According to partial dispatch logs from Defiance County, Ohio, dispatchers reported "garbled breathing" sounds from the women at 5:14 a.m.
At 5:19 a.m., Martha Punches told a dispatcher she had an open line with her daughter, but her daughter wasn't saying anything, according to the logs.
Investigators identified the fire's place of origin as the west living room wall of the ground floor apartment, which butted up against the stairs.
A burn pattern discovered near the gas meters, though, gave investigators pause, and they did not initially rule out arson.
Later, a tipster told CrimeStoppers that a man who once went to school at International Business College and could be angry at the school may have set the fire, according to documents.
The man was interviewed by fire investigators and denied having reason to ever go into the apartment building, which served as a dorm for the school's students. He told investigators he was not angry at the school, was doing fine in life and was allowed to go on his way.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said she does not expect criminal charges to be filed in connection with the fire.
