County, city fire departments respond to separate incidents Friday, July 25

Published 8:30 am Friday, August 1, 2025

Firefighters from the Whitfield County Fire Department and Dalton Fire Department took part in aiding individuals in the area when the firefighters were called to the scene of two separate incidents on Friday, July 25.

During the “early afternoon,” Whitfield County Fire Chief Paul Patterson said county firefighters responded to a “T-bone” car accident on New Hope Church Road, which branches off from Tunnel Hill Varnell Road in Whitfield County.

“When firefighters arrived, they quickly found out that one of the cars had overturned,” Patterson said. “It’s believed that someone may have misjudged the stop sign or didn’t see the stop sign there on (New Hope Church Road). I’m not 100% sure exactly how the accident happened, but there definitely was a T-bone.”

Patterson said the accident involved a female passenger driving a Kia Telluride and a male passenger driving a Hyundai Santa Fe.

“The Telluride had significant front end damage and the (Santa Fe) had damage on the passenger side, front and rear doors,” Patterson said. “The male passenger had to be extricated, but both of them sustained minor injuries after they were checked out.”

In a Facebook post later that evening, Patterson said he was “grateful” no one was “seriously injured” in the accident.

“I’m grateful for my firefighters who used the ‘jaws of life’ to extricate one victim, (and) got the remaining victim triaged and into the hands of the very capable Hamilton (Emergency Medical Services),” he said.

That same day, just before 3 p.m., Dalton Deputy Fire Chief Keith Dempsey said city firefighters responded to a call detailing a fire that had “broke out” inside a commercial building at 644 Threadmill Road.

“The incident was essentially a machine that had caught fire inside that occupancy,” Dempsey said. “We were dispatched at 2:53 (p.m.) and responded to a machine on fire. There was heavy black smoke coming from the building when we arrived, but no flames were visible.”

Dempsey said the fire was contained to a “textile manufacturing machine” in the middle of the building.

“We did establish water supply from a hydrant during the incident,” he said. “Fire attack, search, ventilation, salvage and overhaul were all completed by units on-scene, and the fire was marked under control at 3:19 (p.m.).”

Dempsey said all personnel had exited the building and were accounted for upon the firefighters’ arrival.

“There were no injuries of any kind,” he said. “The machine was the only loss they incurred. Neither the extent of the fire nor our firefighting activities on-scene contributed to any loss in terms of the structure of the occupancy.”

Following the accident Friday, Patterson said the work that first responders accomplish on a daily basis “sometimes” goes unnoticed.

“Sometimes, people (may) think firefighters sit around all day doing nothing; sometimes they think we are overpaid,” he said. “I can guarantee you that the individual who was pinned in the vehicle (Friday) afternoon would disagree with those statements. They are thankful that … when they were hanging upside down in a vehicle, the words of a highly-trained firefighter said, ‘Don’t worry, we got you.’