Family loses home to blaze despite fire station located across the street

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) - Questions are swirling about a New Year’s Day fire that cost a Tennessee family their home, despite being located less than 300 feet from a fire station.

Late Monday night, hours into the new year, neighbors watched a Memphis family lose the roof over their heads when their Egypt Central Road home went up in flames.

“We were outside on the back deck, and we started to smell smoke,” neighbor Philip McLendon told WMC. “We started to hear some sirens and started to see first responders’ lights out there.”

Hours later, McLendon said the fire was still raging, even though Shelby County Fire Station No. 60 is just across the street.

“After 10 o’clock and then 11 and then midnight, hours upon hours, they were still there, and we weren’t sure what was going on but definitely knew something was on fire,” McLendon said.

According to the Shelby County 911 map, the house sits inside Memphis city limits.

Brent Perkins with the Shelby County Fire Department said county firefighters started to prepare to fight the fire but stopped. It is not clear why.

Perkins said the department is on a fact-gathering mission about what happened.

According to Memphis fire officials, city firefighters responded to the unoccupied home just after 11 p.m.

No one was hurt in the blaze, but the damage is estimated at more than $600,000.

“As someone in the neighborhood, it gives us a peace of mind, knowing how close we are, if something were to happen where we needed them. To know that one of our neighbors wasn’t able to get the services that are literally directly across the street from them, that’s concerning. It’s terrifying actually,” McLendon said.

WMC requested in writing mutual aid and automatic aid policies from both city and county fire officials.

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