GEORGETOWN, Texas — It’s a tough goodbye for pet owners as they hang flowers and leave pictures of their pets after 75 dogs died in a fire at Ponderosa Pet Resort in Georgetown overnight on Saturday.

Following the incident, the Georgetown Fire Department is aiming to make changes at the local, state and national levels. 

“We're looking at ways that we can try to encourage change not only here locally, but across the country,” Georgetown Fire Chief John Sullivan said. “We want answers and we want answers now, but we need to go through a process of identifying clearly what caused this fire.” 

It’s still under investigation, but Fire Chief Sullivan says a sprinkler system wasn’t in place. 

According to the city code, it’s not mandatory in a building under 10,000 square feet.  It’s also not required to have 24/7 staffing. 

“Changes are made nationally on a three-year cycle,” Carl Wren, the fire protection engineer for the Georgetown Fire Department, said. 

Less than a week after the fire, the International Code Council is set to vote on the 2024 edition of fire and building codes. 

Wren will be representing Georgetown. 

“We'll be making some testimony and hopefully some votes that will have an impact,” Wren said. “There's a code change, F-69, that would address animal housing facilities in a generic way, but also require specific fire protection when they exceed a certain threshold. That's one way that we want to try to effect some change nationally.” 

There was no overnight staff when the fire took place, mentioned on the pet resort’s website. 

Many are left with questions wondering if this could’ve all been prevented. 

“I just want to know what happened,” Leikyn Huckins, a pet owner who lost her two dogs, Gizmo and Drexel said. “I just want them to give me my dogs back.”

She dropped them off at Ponderosa Pet Resort in Georgetown before leaving on vacation. 

What she thought would be a week without them, turned into a forever goodbye. 

Shortly before flying back home, she found out they died in a fire, along with dozens more dogs. 

“I go to open my door and I'm waiting to see him, like poking his nose around the corner for me.”

Jennie Signorelli, a pet owner who lost her dog Ace in the fire said, “I don't want to bash anyone like you know, stuff happens. They had really great reviews. I've only heard great things. I kind of just, I trusted them. I figured that if these people love my dog as much as I do, they're gonna do everything in their power to make sure that he's OK 24/7.”

Her roommate Courtney Schultz and Courtney’s son are also mourning the loss of Ace. 

“Bud I have something to tell you, something that's gonna be really hard to hear,” Courtney told her son after losing Ace. “I said unfortunately, we're no longer going to be seeing Ace anymore.”

“I just have questions about what was in place to protect the animals,” Signorelli said. 

Signorelli wants answers, but she says all that can be done now is preventing it from happening again. 

“I'm hoping that if they do reopen that they do something to alleviate this problem in the future,” she  said. 

According to the City of Georgetown, the owner of the facility is working to reunite the dogs with their families at an alternate location. Families should expect to receive an email notification from the owner today.

“I want to see him before I cremate him so they're gonna arrange that,” Signorelli said. “I just want to see him one last time.”