By S. Brady Calhoun
The News Herald
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Bay County officials have completed an investigation into firefighters’ burial of a family pet, and on Thursday they announced county employees did nothing wrong.
The family involved said they were not shocked that no firefighter admitted to wrongdoing but stand by their claim that firefighters buried a speaker on their property instead of their dog’s remains.
Travis Davis and his wife, Sheila, lost their home and dog Gizmo in an Aug. 14 fire. The fire started in the clothes dryer about 4:30 a.m. as Sheila Davis was doing laundry. She woke her husband and put Gizmo, a 3-year-old Pekingese, outside as she got a garden hose and tried to douse the flames herself.
The fire went beyond her control, and firefighters were unable to salvage the mobile home or its contents. While Travis and Sheila Davis got out of the residence unharmed, Gizmo went back inside to seek out Travis. The dog hid in his usual safe spot, under Travis’ bed.
Firefighters said they found the dog’s ribcage and ashes next to Travis’ bed, according to documents released Thursday. They called the family and agreed to bury the dog on the couple’s property. However, last week as the couple was demolishing the trailer they smelled something funny and found Gizmo’s remains under the bed, Travis said. After digging up the gravesite, they found a speaker, he added.
“The grave is out there with the speaker in it,” Davis said. “I guess their motive was they wanted me to think they buried the dog but they didn’t.”
The couple filed a complaint with the county, but after investigating the incident Bay County Fire Chief Mark Bowen believes his firefighters did bury the dog’s remains in the yard.
“We regret the family’s loss, but our investigation really hasn’t turned up anything that supports the allegation,” Bowen said. “We regret that they weren’t satisfied with our services, but again, we found no wrongdoing on the part of any county firefighters.”
All of the firefighters at the scene were interviewed and they all told investigators the same thing, that the remains were found and buried in the yard. Family members said that no one from the county came to their property to investigate the claim or talked to them about the situation.
“I don’t know anything else to do. If I could, I would,” Davis said. “The main thing I wanted was people to know about it. But people don’t believe it anyway, so the hell with them people.”
Copyright 2009 The News Herald