Radio traffic via OpenMHz.com from a fire this morning at 1100 Eastern Avenue NE.
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Early this (Wednesday) morning, a mother called 911 in the nation’s capital saying she was hunkered down in the bathroom with her baby. A fire was burning on the stove of her apartment and the woman apparently didn’t think she could make it through the smoke to safety with the baby. That kitchen fire was on the third floor of 1100 Eastern Avenue in Northeast Washington. DC911 didn’t dispatch DC Fire & EMS right away to that address. Instead, they mistakenly sent the units more than four miles away to 1100 East Capitol Street NE. It took 11 minutes before DC911 sent the correct building fire assignment to the correct location. The first arriving firefighters at the correct location – whose response dispatchers actually canceled – got the mother and child to safety and checked out by EMS. They also quickly handled a small kitchen fire that pumped out a lot of smoke.
This was at least the third time in 10 days that DC911 botched the dispatch for a building fire. While all the information isn’t yet known about the handling of this morning’s fire, what is known through radio traffic (above) and multiple sources, is that call-takers and dispatchers made numerous mistakes in the handling of this emergency. Some of the mistakes are chronic problems at DC911, also known as the Office of Unified Communications (OUC).
Timeline
12:45:29 a.m. Thirteen units from DC Fire & EMS were dispatched to 1100 East Capitol Street NE for a fire in a third-floor apartment with people possibly trapped. STATter911 has learned that the information available on the screen to the call-taker showed the 911 caller’s location was in the 5200 block of Sheriff Rd. NE. That’s more than four miles from 1100 East Capitol Street NE. This crucial information was apparently overlooked by the call-taker. What’s not known at this point is what address the caller provided verbally.
12:49:54 a.m. Engine 30 and Truck 17 were dispatched to 1100 Eastern Avenue NE for alarm bells in an apartment building. That apartment building is at Eastern Avenue and Sheriff Road. One side of the building is in the 5200 block of Sheriff Rd. NE. That’s the same location automatically provided by the phone of the original 911 caller.
12:50:15 a.m. Battalion Chief 2 on East Capitol Street NE asked OUC for a call back to the 911 caller. The units on East Capital NE found a house, and not an apartment building, at 1100. There was no indication of a fire in the block.
12:51:19 a.m. A dispatcher told Battalion Chief 2 that the caller was in the bathroom with a burning pot on her stove and couldn’t get out. The battalion chief asked if the caller was on East Capitol Street or Eastern Avenue. The chief likely saw the Eastern Avenue address on his computer screen. The dispatcher couldn’t answer that question. It’s not clear why the dispatcher failed to get confirmation of the address before hanging up with the woman.
12:52:20 a.m. Battalion Chief 2 asked again if the dispatcher had the correct address. The dispatcher said the woman didn’t answer the phone the second time and would try to call again.
12:52:33 a.m. A dispatcher working the dispatch channel announced that Engine 30 and Truck 17, the only units heading to the correct address, were to go in service. They were cancelled by DC911. Either the firefighters aboard those two units failed to hear that order or ignored it because at some point, they continued to 1100 Eastern Avenue NE.
12:52:48 a.m. Battalion Chief 2 reported that the address in the computer for the call they were on at 1100 East Capitol Street NE had now been changed by OUC to 1100 Eastern Avenue NE. The dispatcher said she was calling again to make sure about the address. Engine 30 came up on the channel to tell the chief they were responding to the Eastern Avenue address with Truck 17 (despite DC911 previously canceling them).
12:53:59 a.m. The dispatcher told Battalion Chief 2 she still can’t get the caller on the line but that they had a third call for 1100 Eastern Avenue NE. Battalion Chief 2 said all units from East Capitol Street were going back in service.
12:56:33 a.m. Eleven minutes after the initial dispatch, DC911 sent the building fire assignment of 13 units to 1100 Eastern Avenue, joining Engine 30 and Truck 17.
12:59:09 a.m. Engine 30 arrived at 1100 Eastern Avenue. They were told of a grease fire in an apartment.
1:00:37 a.m. Engine 30 reported smoke on the third floor.
1:01:57 a.m. Engine 30 reported food burning in the apartment with the third floor pretty smoked up. They were getting the occupants to safety.
1:04:30 a.m. The woman and her baby were being checked out by Ambulance 27.
Similar mistakes
The errors this morning are similar to a fire on May 12 at 1704 R Street SE where DC911 sent firefighters to the wrong quadrant of the city for an apartment fire. In both cases, there was automatic location information immediately available to call-takers. It should have alerted call-takers the address they entered into the computer was likely wrong. In both cases that information was ignored or overlooked. That mistake, of failing to use the automatic location information, is a recurring one for DC911. It was identified as a chronic problem in a 2021 report by the Office of the DC Auditor. The fire on R Street SE would likely have been more significant if not for it being kept in check by an automatic sprinkler system.
On Saturday, DC911 dispatched the wrong units to a reported fire at a grocery store in Logan Circle. The 13 fire and EMS units sent on that building fire assignment were all miles away from the Whole Foods at 1440 P Street NW. One of the closer engines not initially dispatched by DC911 said on the radio, “They need to re-dispatch that. They butchered that.” While firefighters realized immediately that the assignment was wrong, it took DC911 at least three minutes before the call was properly dispatched. Luckily, it turned out to be a minor problem with a heater at a store entrance.
While it’s unclear what caused the computer system to spit out the wrong assignment, it should have been caught immediately by dispatchers or a supervisor. The image below from the dispatch system shows the address and which fire and EMS units were assigned. A dispatcher looking at this should have quickly realized something was wrong. The first engine, Engine 20, and many of the other units assigned are from Upper Northwest, miles away from Logan Circle. When the correct assignment was finally dispatched, it included only two units from the original assignment, an engine and a battalion chief.
Nothing new
In all three of these incidents, the inability of DC911 workers to effectively do their jobs caused significant delay. The mistakes also caused chaos and confusion for responding firefighters. These same problems have been occurring for many years at DC911. These issues have been made worse in recent years by a severe staffing shortage. Staffing information provided to STATter911 by OUC workers shows the agency is frequently below minimum staffing levels. On some shifts they are working with less than half the number of call-takers that should be answering calls. Data shared by OUC on its website shows 911 call answering times well below national standards, a likely reflection of the low staffing levels. Mandatory overtime has many call-takers and dispatchers complaining of being overworked.
OUC’s leadership and the administration of Mayor Muriel Bowser have long refused to acknowledge these significant systemic problems at the 911 center. In addition to downplaying the issues, OUC withholds key performance data required by law, along with information about significant errors involving its workers. The oversight by the DC Council has been weak, often accepting Director Heather McGaffin’s refusal to provide council members and the public crucial details about tragic incidents where there have been delays and mistakes.
There’s little indication from city leaders that anything significant is in the works to disrupt the dismal status quo at DC911. It would be nice to be proven wrong.
NOTE: OUC’s leadership stopped answering questions from STATter911 in October 2022. At that time, STATter911 was told by the agency’s PIO that any questions about 911calls had to come via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The first four FOIA requests were then denied claiming privacy issues about 911 calls. At that point, STATter911 mostly stopped wasting time requesting comments and information from OUC. Recent emails to OUC have gone unanswered. As always, if OUC leaders or other DC officials are interested in commenting on these stories their response will be published as it’s received.
