On the evening of Friday, September 5th 2025, strong thunderstorms were reported across Sunnyvale from 11PM to midnight. A house on Talbot Rd was apparently struck twice by lightning–at 11:22PM and then again at 11:23PM. The homeowners reported hearing a strange hissing noise, but then 8 minutes later at 11:31PM they called 911 to report their attic had caught fire.
9 minutes later at 11:40, Sunnyvale Fire Engine 1 was on the scene and inside the house evacuating the homeowner by 11:44, and were connected to the fire hydrant by 11:46. The Mesquite Fire Department had been responding to another call, but arrived to help with Mesquite Engine 1 at 12:07AM, Mesquite Engine 5 at 12:14AM, and Mesquite Truck 2 at 12:32AM. The Fire Departments had to pull from 3 fire hydrants, and it took them until 1:40AM to extinguish the main fire. Firefighters remained to fight hot spots from the now-collapsed roof until 5:02AM. With a collapsed roof, the house was a total loss, but by putting out the fire before it burned down, some of the owners’ valuables and keepsakes may have survived.
Losing a house is a disaster, what went wrong? Is this why our Fire Chief Tami Kayea was fired on Tuesday?
Mutual Aid Allegations Don’t Make Sense
Some people in the town have been spreading rumors alleging that Chief Kayea was fired because of the September fire, and that she hasn’t been fast enough in securing mutual aid agreements with our neighboring towns. Specifically, the rumor was “…a source at Town Hall familiar with the situation suggested [Chief Kayea’s] leadership was questioned after repeated delays in securing mutual aid agreements with neighboring cities, which are needed to enhance the fire department’s firefighting capabilities.” Mutual aid systems are agreements for municipalities to share resources in an emergency, including fire, police, and EMS services (like this one, between Ellis and Dallas). In Texas, these different agreements are ultimately aggregated into the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System, which is maintained by the Texas A&M Forest Service, and was first used during Hurricane Ike.
But Sunnyvale Fire Department is already part of the Dallas County Mutual Aid system (and Sunnyvale Fire department also has a mutual aid agreement with a private provider in case a vehicle is damaged and temporarily inoperable). I can’t find a copy of Sunnyvale’s agreement with Mesquite specifically but here for example is our mutual aid agreement with Forney and Kaufman County Emergency Services from 2020 (in place since 2010), and the Town Council is supposed to review these agreements every year. I do know that we received mutual aid from Mesquite Fire Department on the night of the fire. I also know that Chief Kayea mentioned existing mutual aid agreements already being a part of our Fire Department’s emergency planning back in January 2025: (1:44:30 mark).
I got into this whole mess of writing the Cricket because Paul Cash was spreading malicious rumors that Mayor George was going to build a mega cricket complex for out-of-towners using taxpayer funds, and then someone at Town Hall was apparently the source for a rumor that Mayor George built his house without permits…WHO AT TOWN HALL KEEPS SPREADING THESE RUMORS?
A Short Tangent About Barnes Bridge
So mutual aid agreements are standard, we have them, and they are helpful. However, in many North Texas cities, Fire Departments are going even further to implement automated Fire Dispatching services, which bring down response times even further by using computers to dispatch from a 911 call, even using weather and traffic data to plan the fastest route for the call. In the July 8th, 2024 Town Council meeting, a Sunnyvale resident who lives on Barnes Bridge made a passionate argument that the Town shouldn’t repair Barnes Bridge, because it means less traffic for those who live on that road. At the 9 minute mark of the Council Meeting video, he argues that the Town’s public safety concern (we should be able to drive our fire trucks over the bridge so we can respond in an emergency) is overblown: they would rather rely on Mesquite’s fire station, and have the Town save the money for repairing Barnes Bridge and spend some of it on an automated dispatching service instead.
I am very skeptical of that argument. The City of Plano Fire Department has been implementing a new Automated Fire-Rescue Alert System this past year, and they claim it saves seconds (not minutes!) in responding to a call. Taking the long way around because Barnes Bridge is down will take more time to respond in a Fire than you’re saving with an automated dispatch system. I hope the residents off of Barnes Bridge don’t think Chief Kayea was being “slow to implement mutual aid systems” because she would rather see the bridge fixed.
Armchair Quarterbacking the Talbot Rd Fire Ignores that Lightning is A Big Threat Here
Chief Kayea noted that there were storms that night which made mutual aid from Mesquite difficult. This seems plausible; I am working on tracking the incident reports for Mesquite Fire Department to see how busy they were close to midnight (they only publicly post the most recent 24 hours here: https://apps.cityofmesquite.com/911data/fire.php, and a monthly summary)–if I get a response from the City of Mesquite I will post it here. When Mesquite first arrived at 12:07AM, they came with just a reserve truck, which didn’t have the stream strength or reach of a normal truck (it was also sent without a hydrant adapter, but Sunnyvale Fire Department luckily had one they could use). Based on the timeline Chief Kayea gave during her report to the Town Council on December 8th, 2025 (https://sunnyvaletx.new.swagit.com/videos/362970) (starts at the 30 minute mark), it took over an hour to put out the fire once they had enough water spraying on it.
In hindsight, yes of course it would be great if bigger trucks got there faster, the 911 call came earlier, and if the house could have been saved. I can’t imagine the anguish and stress this has caused my neighbors who lost their home, and I understand a letter may have been sent to the Town carrying some of that pain and placing blame. The homeowner did speak at a Town Council meeting on September 8th (9 minute 30 second mark), asking for a full accounting of what they perceived as delays in responding to the fire. I hope their insurance covered everything (as I understand from the December town council meeting there was thankfully no loss of life or serious physical injuries). I didn’t see a GoFundMe for them, but thankfully reconstruction of the house started quickly and when I drove by in January the new roof looked nearly done.
But this is not the first time a lightning strike has caused a fire in Sunnyvale. In fact, it’s been just a year and a half since another house on Tripp Rd burned down from a lightning strike in 2024. Zooming out, there have been homes burning down in this part of Texas for a long time, which is why lightning rod installers do a steady business in the state–especially as we build more homes with fewer mature trees around to divert lightning strikes.
Maybe Get A Lightning Rod, But Check Your Attic Furnace Too
Lightning rods are certainly one solution we can take — regardless of how you feel about the Fire Department and Chief Kayea’s departure. But one more issue that emerges from these recent Sunnyvale Fires may come from how our homes are constructed–particularly how our attic furnaces are installed. Chief Kayea’s report to the Town Council noted that in both the Tripp Rd fire in 2024 and in the Talbot Rd fire in 2025, lightning strikes appear to have ruptured and ignited Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing, or CSST. CSST is the flexible line that carry natural gas from our main steel utility gas lines the last few feet to the furnace. If they aren’t grounded and bonded properly, a lightning strike can cause the thin metal tubing to burst, and the sparks from the lightning will simultaneously ignite the natural gas now streaming out of that tube. If the flame ends up pointing at your insulation or rafters, you’ve essentially got a blowtorch pointed at some very dry tinder.
Based on the account of the Talbot Rd homeowner to the Sunnyvale Fire Department investigating the fire in September 2025, he heard a strange hissing noise for several minutes before noticing any fire. Chief Kayea showed a video to the Town Council (53 minute mark, or I may upload the clip separately if I figure it out) showing a burst and ignited CSST tube (that was luckily pointing away from the attic joists), and it makes a hissing noise. It’s plausible that CSST was the reason a lightning strike caused the September fire. If you have the time to watch, it turns out CSST is increasingly being identified as a key source of fires (see here and a long video here). Needless to say, if we have another lightning storm and I suddenly hear a hissing sound, I’m checking for fire and calling the Fire Department immediately.
It would be great if a plumber in Sunnyvale could offer a fair price to replace CSST before all our houses burn down.1
Regarding the response times, it’s hard to say what would have helped. We already have a mutual aid agreement, and as I’ve said before, I don’t think automated dispatching would have saved more than a few seconds–especially since we already pay Mesquite for dispatching services, so they were aware of our fire emergency before mutual aid was even activated. If Sunnyvale had a bigger ladder truck, it could have reached the attic sooner and maybe saved the structure (and those seem to cost $1.5-$2Million to buy). I have not seen a response from the homeowner on Talbot about the Fire Department’s investigation, but I would be very curious to hear what more they still feel the Fire Department should have done.
Everything Seemed to Be Going So Well With our New Fire Chief
We don’t know why the Fire Department Chief separated from Sunnyvale. Tami Kayea is a fourth-generation firefighter who served in Dallas for over 27 years, she was valedictorian in her academy class in 1996, her father had been a firefighter in Carrollton for over 30 years. The Town only hired her about 2 years ago with a lot of excitement, and she had been praised by Councilmember Allen for being out in the community, chopping wood in the middle of Jobson Road after a storm to clean up the town ( 5minute 48 second mark).
One thing remains clear though: whatever dispatching issues and mutual aid agreement issues our town has, surely we had them under our former Fire Chief Doug Kendrick, who retired in August 2023, right? If this was really a big enough issue to fire her over, surely the Town asked about the response time issue–and how she would fix it–during her interview process?
So Why Is Chief Kayea Really Leaving?
If the response time was not the issue, the Town should provide more transparency on what the real issue was. It could have been for health reasons. It could be that Chief Kayea is heading off to a promotion at a bigger department. It could have been because there are personnel/cultural challenges taking over a department Doug Kendrick led since at least 2016.
[Correction: I have been informed that the Sunnyvale Fire Department adopted a 48/96 schedule “years ago.” I had looked at this job posting from 2024 and understood it to mean a 24/48 schedule was in effect, but based on this 2006 report it does seem to mean a 48/96 schedule, so this theory is probably wrong. When I reached out to the Fire Station with my questions I was told repeatedly that all the answers are with Interim Town Manager Vegas. I couldn’t get an answer even on whether the separation was voluntary or involuntary.
One other theory I heard that I keep coming back to is that Chief Kayea was proposing a change to the firefighter shift schedule which was not popular. Our firefighters currently work under a 24/48 shift schedule (24 hours on, 48 hours off). Many cities in Texas are moving towards a 48/96 schedule (or even Plano’s new 24/72 schedule), which has been shown by research (http://iaff1806.unionactive.com/Docs/48-96/24-48versus48-96_Koen_Paper.pdf) to improve work-life balance, health, and mitigate PTSD (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12652382/ – apparently at least 72 hours of recovery is recommended after traumatic events). However, many firefighters also use their off-time to pick up extra shifts at another fire department or EMS service, construction work, tree climbing, etc. to supplement their income, and a lot of firefighters care deeply about their ability to do side jobs. If Chief Kayea was trying to move the department to a 48/96 schedule, that could have caused a rift with her staff since it threatens their side-job livelihoods, and made our firefighters unwilling to work with her. ]
I would appreciate it if Interim Chief Bill Vegas gave the Town some transparency on whether the issue was about the Fire Chief’s ability to perform, or about the Fire Department’s ability to accept Chief Kayea’s management style. Also, if there are any firefighters willing to talk to me and set the record straight, please email me at ben@sunnyvalecricket.com. I can understand legal and privacy reasons for not sharing why Chief Kayea separated from the Town, but that doesn’t mean I like it.
A Last Thought
It probably doesn’t need to be said that women in Fire Departments, especially in leadership, are rare. Chief Kayea was one of just a handful of female Fire Chiefs in Texas, and the first in North Texas. Regardless of why she left–even if it had nothing to do with her gender, it’s not great that she couldn’t succeed here! When Sunnyvale hired Chief Kayea, she told the WFAA news “You have to be twice as good just to be considered average, and you can either get upset about it, or you can spend your energy being twice as good.” When we go to recruit a permanent Town Manager or other key staff, are women applicants now going to be afraid they’ll be run out of town in 2 years? How do the women of this town (and particularly Councilmembers Manu Danny and Holly Garland) feel about how this was handled?
For our Town’s sake, I hope Interim Town Manager Vegas and the Town Council have been documenting the real issues and will shed some light on what really happened (and how they tried to fix it before firing her), because baseless rumors about Chief Kayea’s competence are not helping anyone.
- If you’re a plumber and want to advertise this service, reach out to me and I’ll put your contact info at the bottom of this page for free. I am operating this site as a public service with my own funds, which is why it looks so cheap :). ↩︎
