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NYC Tries Once Again to Remove Street Alarm Boxes

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street box c city noiseNEW YORK CITY FIRE COMMISSIONER Salvatore Cassano told the City Council at a budget hearing on Wednesday that he plans to seek approval to remove the approximately 15,000 street alarm boxes from service.  He believes that it will result in a monetary savings of $6 million in the first year.  The Claims Journal reports:

Of the 12,931 calls from alarm boxes in 2009, 85 percent — or 10,997 — were false alarms, the fire department said.  And of the fire department’s 26,666 calls reporting structural fires in 2009, less than one percent — or 140 — came from an alarm box.

The city tried to do this 15 years ago, but an activist group filed a court injunction claiming that to remove them would severely impact deaf people.  The court then prohibited the city from deactivating the system, but they also said the fire department could later apply to lift the injunction if it showed that deaf and hearing-impaired people had another adequate way of reporting fires.

Cassano told the City Council that he believes that gains in technology, such as mobile phones, means that the city can finally get rid of the system.  “We are confident that call boxes can be deactivated without jeopardizing public safety,” he said.  In addition to getting approval from the federal court, the City Council would have to repeal a law that requires a street box to be placed every four blocks.

Posted by firegeezer on March 12, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, dispatch • Tagged: , ,

Morning Lineup – March 12

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Back on November 20’s Morning Lineup (HERE) I wrote four paragraphs about my disagreement with those few emergency dispatch agencies who seem to be anxious to release 9-1-1 recordings for the public’s entertainment.  I wrote, in part:  Yesterday, once again, there was a public release of a 9-1-1 tape recording and this one is really pressing the limits, I think.  It includes the screaming death throes of a woman who is burning.  Several of you agreed with me that indiscriminate release of the phone calls for obviously prurient reasons is more than just distasteful.

It appears that I am not the only one who is disturbed by this practice.  The Florida state legislature is considering a bill that would restrict the release of 911 recordings except under a court order showing “good cause.”  The bill is in the House where it was originated and is being promoted as a victim’s rights measure designed to protect the privacy of 911 callers.  It as generated a vigorous debate between those who believe that the recordings are the same as any public document and should be immediately available to anybody who wants to listen to them, and the opposite faction that believes there should be a mechanism to take out the sensationalism that is sometimes used as a reason for publishing the tapes.

The House committe chairman that is overseeing the bill said, “The real point here is this bill gets to the core of sensationalism. This preserves the right to know while [eliminating] the profiteering off the sensationalism of others.”  On the other hand, the spokesman for the Florida ACLU claims, “It places an unnecessary barrier to the constitutionally-protected right to access public records.”

On Wednesday the bill passed out of the committe by an 8-5 vote.  Florida’s governor has stated that he is opposed to the legislation.

Florida is not the only state considering this type of legislation.  Alabama, Ohio, and Wisconsin are also working on similar bills while Rhode Island, Maine, and Pennsylvania have already placed some restrictions on access to the recordings.

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There are just two days left to VOTE HERE for the Wildland Firefighters Foundation entry in Toyota’s contest for best race car paint design.  We first alerted you to this contest and how you can help this fine charitable organization almost two weeks ago HERE.  Since you can vote once a day for as many days as there are remaining, you have three more opportunities to help out.

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Their vote totals are really getting up there and the WFF tells us that they have an excellent shot at finishing in the top-ten which will move them up into the Finals.  So take a moment, please, and give them a click.

Now we will take several moments and get this equipment checked out.  I need to take a moment and make some more coffee, too.  See you back in the day room.

Posted by firegeezer on March 12, 2010 • Filed under: dispatch, morning lineup • Tagged:

Ambulance Dispatch Delay Being Investigated

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AN EXPERIENCED 9-1-1 DISPATCHER IN PUNTA GORDA, FLORIDA, is on administrative reassignment today after an incident where an ambulance was not dispatched until 14 minutes after the call came in.

The incident took place on Friday night when a caller reported that a 91-yr.-old woman was in cardiac arrest.  The dispatcher who is also a supervisor, took the call and immediately sent a police unit and a fire engine that was staffed with three EMT’s and one Paramedic.  But for some as-yet-unknown reason, the ambulance wasn’t dispatched until much later.

This video report from WZVN-TV has the full story, but the newscasters appear to be trying to blame the dispatch error for the woman’s death, despite the timely arrival of the paramedic engine crew:

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Posted by firegeezer on March 11, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Videos, ambulances, dispatch • Tagged: , ,

Time to Move the Button

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A NEW YORK CITY POLICE DISPATCHER WAS TAKING AN AMBULANCE CALL from Manhattan Thursday and mistakenly sent the ambulance to Brooklyn instead.  By the time the mistake was identified and corrected, an ambulance that was sent to the correct location arrived shortly after the 6-yr-old patient had died.

The call came from a distraught mother on Avenue C in Manhattan who was reporting that her young son was suddenly bleeding from his nose, but he was unable to provided the dispatcher with a related cross-street.  The dispatcher then pressed a button that is designed to provide that sort of information, but she hit the button for the Brooklyn street grid instead.  Brooklyn also has an Ave. C, so a unit was sent on the call.  They arrived 6 minutes after the call first came in to 9-1-1, but quickly determined that they were at the wrong address.  When dispatch called back the phone number, they then learned of the error and sent another unit to the correct location.

When the 2nd ambulance arrived, 18 minutes had passed since the call was first received and by then the boy had died.

The New York Daily News reports that the boy had been taken to a hospital on Monday and a clinic on Wednesday for flu-like symptoms and a fever.  City authorities admit that it was human error and not a computer malfunction that led to the delay.

WPIX-TV has this video report:
 

Posted by firegeezer on February 21, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Videos, ambulances, dispatch • Tagged: ,

4 Fire Officers Placed on Admin. Leave

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FOUR DeKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA, FIRE OFFICERS WERE PLACED on administrative leave Monday following a fatal house fire early Sunday morning.  County public safety director William Miller put acting officer in charge William Greene, Capt. Tony L. Motes, Capt. Sell Caldwell, and Battalion Chief Lesley Clark on leave with pay while the department investigates the circumstances of the fire.

dekalb a AJC andres

Only the front steps and the chimney remained of
the ranch-style house.  (Atlanta Journal Constitution / Andres)

The incident began at 1:03 am Sunday when the 9-1-1 center recieved a call about a fire in a house.  While the call-taker was getting the inormation, the line was disconnected.  Fire Rescue units were dispatched to the area where the call originated while the dispatcher tried unsucessfully to call back.  The responding units were unable to locate any evidence of a fire in the area and returned to quarters.

Later, at 6:40 am another call came in reporting a house on fire across the street from the caller’s home.  The 1st-arriving units found a house fully involved with fire through the roof.  After the fire was put out, firefighters found the body of a 74-yr.-old woman in the debris nearly 8 hours after she first called for help.

WAGA-TV Ch. 5 Atlanta has this video report:

Firegeezer notes:  It hasn’t been reported if any of the suspensions were officers at the 9-1-1 center.  Also, I find it curious that DeKalb’s dispatch center has apparently never upgraded to the caller-ID feature that gives the address of the caller.  On the other hand, if they do have it, the address given is usually the billing address and sometimes that can be another location, such as a trustee’s home.

Posted by firegeezer on January 26, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Fires, Videos, dispatch, fire • Tagged: ,

Puzzling Policy Change in NYC Ambulance Dispatch Protocol

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IT HAS ONLY RECENTLY BEEN REVEALED that last month the FDNY has pulled the 35 volunteer ambulance squads in the city from its 9-1-1 dispatch system.  In a memo to the dispatchers, a high-ranking EMS chief said that the volunteers “are no longer required” to help cover the calls sent out for emergency medical services.

The volunteer squads operate about 50 ambulances, mostly in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.  They usually respond to more than 10,000 EMS calls a year, albeit most of them are not dispatched directly from the 9-1-1 center.  When the city is overloaded, or sees a response delay, they sometimes call the vol. units on a phone line or the mutual-aid radio frequency.  Most of the squads have their own emergency phone number and the citizens in their territory call them directly.

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Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance Corps (Brooklyn) website photo

The medics who ride the units all have the same qualifications and certifications that any other medic units have.  Many of the volunteers, in fact, are off-duty FDNY medics.

The New York Post has the full story on this recent revelation HERE.

The local city council members were caught unawares of this new policy and are already beginning to plan hearings on the reason for this puzzling decision.  The volunteer squads are not only saving the city a lot of money, but they are seriously reducing response times in many instances.

Here are some selected websites for a few of the NYC volunteer ambulance squads:

Hat tip to Chief  Billy G. for vol. links

Posted by firegeezer on January 17, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, ambulances, dispatch • Tagged: ,

Updates, etc.

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UPDATES FOR SOME RECENT FIREGEEZER ARTICLES:

*  This afternoon (Monday),the firefighters of Morbihan region paid a tribute to the Ajudant Damien Hochet who died in a firetruck accident on December 23rd.  (see Firegeezer story HERE.)  Many people were at the services which took place in a gymnasium in Kerlivio.

morbihan a funeral

His two colleagues who were injured in the accident, Emmanuel Magnan and Anthony le Bot, were able to attend, also.

Source:  Ouest-France.

*  Do you recall the story about the Asian Carp migrating up the Illinois River that we posted on December 2?  We had that fascinating video HERE showing scores of the fish jumping out of the water as a boat passes by.  The focus of the story was on the fear that then encroaching species was about to get into the Great Lakes via the Chicago ship canal.

Last week the State of Michigan filed for an injunction in the U. S. Supreme Court against the Army Corps of Engineers  to force them to keep the locks closed that connect the two bodies of water.  Read the background in our first report HERE (and watch the funny video), then watch this video report from WFLD-TV Chicago on the legal challenge by Michigan:

*  Sunday morning the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, had a series of 11 arsons in a span of 73 minutes (Firegeezer video report HERE) that left two people dead in one house.  Today the NFD released the dispatch tapes of the radio activity and they have been transcribed onto a set of three YouTube recordings.  Our correspondent Richard C., who sent along the link, refers to them as “a dispatcher’s nightmare.”  CLICK HERE to listen to them and see if you agree.

Posted by fireball on December 28, 2009 • Filed under: In the Line of Duty, current events, dispatch • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – November 20

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We’ll start the morning off with a little technical report.  Recently we’ve been hearing from a (very) few readers who apparently are getting incomplete downloads when they log onto Firegeezer.com.  The reports have been slow coming in because I don’t think that they knew something was wrong in the first place, but it seems that in a few isolated cases the white background behind the writing on our posting hasn’t been loading, leaving the black print over the gray background.  Most folks just thought that was how the new page was designed and struggled with it until they finally wrote and complained.  And that’s how I learned something was not right.

This is how the page is supposed to look:

FG page

If you are not getting the white background like you see here, then please write to me at:  geezerguys (at) yahoo.com, or leave a Comment and tell us a) what browser you are using, and b) what version of that browser it is.  Such as IE 6.0 or Firefox 2.0, etc.  Also, if you are using Windows, let us know if you are using the 64-bit format.  (If you don’t know what that means, then most likely you aren’t using it.)  The webpage developers are trying to find out what is causing this so that it can be corrected.  Thanks for helping.

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Yesterday, once again, there was a public release of a 9-1-1 tape recording and this one is really pressing the limits, I think.  It includes the screaming death throes of a woman who is burning.  I find that very upsetting and in very poor form.  It seems that in the past year or so, many municipalities have been more than anxious to get the “live” recordings of prominent or newsworthy emergency calls distributed for public consumption.  But I’m thinking that they have public entertainment more in mind when they do this.

Recording all telephone traffic in the dispatching centers is a practice that dates back several decades now.  But the tapes were always considered confidential recordings and were kept temporarily for administrative purposes only.  Prominent incidents, both police and fire, were kept beyond the 30-day life span in case any legal issues such as an arrest and criminal trial might call for the tape as evidence. 

Sometimes unusual calls were kept indefinitely for training purposes, too.  But they were still confidential information and only used within the appropriate agency.  But in the past several years there has been a growing practice of some many dispatch centers to just throw callers’ recordings out into the public domain for what appear to be prurient reasons. 

Not only is that of dubious value, not to mention poor taste, but it breaks an important confidentiality with the citizen who has called you for help, not embarrassment.  I do not like this practice at all.  Not at all.

We’d better get this equipment checked out now.  I’ve got to get the coffee started.  We’ll meet in the day room later on.

Posted by firegeezer on November 20, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch, morning lineup • Tagged: ,

And He Thought This Would Work?

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A RACINE COUNTY, WISCONSIN, DRIVER GOT WORRIED ….. REALLY WORRIED …. when he was pulled over for speeding this past Tuesday.  Christopher Jones, 31, thought that he’d get the sheriff’s deputy that stopped him to suddenly lose interest if something more important popped up.  So while Jones was pulling his car over, he pulled out a cellphone and called in a false accident-with-injury report for a location just down the road.

The local fire department, Rochester VFD rolled with engines and rescue expecting a serious crash, but found nothing on arrival.  The deputy however, didn’t get as distracted as Jones had hoped.

WTMJ-TV Milwaukee reports via video:

The Racine Journal Times explains what happened next:

Dispatch immediately traced the call back to a phone owned by Jones’ mother, and to the area where he had been stopped for speeding, on Highway D near the intersection with Highway W. But when the deputy who had pulled Jones over asked him where his cell phone was, Jones reportedly said he didn’t have a cell phone, even though the deputy had seen him fumbling with one at the start of the traffic stop. When his vehicle was later searched, deputies found a cell phone battery, but no phone.

During the traffic stop, deputies reported finding something else – a Racine County Sheriff’s Department ID card and badge tucked inside Jones’ wallet. When Jones noticed that the deputy had seen the items, he reportedly closed the wallet and said “It’s not what you think. I’m not trying to impersonate a police officer.”

Jones has been charged with driving with a revoked license, obstructing, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a switchblade knife. He was cited for speeding and illegal use of 911. He is due in court Nov. 16.

Posted by firegeezer on October 3, 2009 • Filed under: crime, dispatch

This is Why We Have Street Drills

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MOST OF THE REGIONAL AMBULANCE SERVICES in the UK have fully-implemented GPS systems in their rigs to assist in navigating to the incident scene.  In fact, some of the ambulance trusts have gone so far as to require the crews to follow the system’s directions to the location, even if the driver thinks he knows a better path.

BBC News is reporting that there are many instances where the GPS systems are creating costly delays in the response times.  Their reporters have gone back in the ambulance logs for seven years and have found:

(There) have been incidents in which ambulance crews from Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire have experienced problems with their sat-nav gear while responding to emergency calls.An incident log from the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) shows historic problems where difficulties with the kit caused delays in responding to a range of call-outs, including to a 10-week-old child in cardiac arrest, a baby reportedly “turning blue” and a toddler with breathing difficulties.

The log, dating back to 2002, described how crews had repeatedly been sent to addresses in foreign countries, under bridges that were too low, down farm tracks and dead ends.

Since many of the ambulance trusts have been merged as a policy of “efficiency,” it is not unusual for an ambulance crew to end up running calls as far away as 60 miles from their normally assigned area, thus the need for maps and GPS assistance.  But the BBC found that the “sat-nav,” as they call it, has created problems such as:

An ambulance responding to a woman with breathing difficulties in September 2003 took 16 minutes to reach her instead of three when the sat-nav took them to the wrong location.

On three separate occasions, the sat-nav system directed separate Suffolk crews to locations in The Netherlands. Another crew was directed to an area “south east of Paris”.

Firegeezer notes that these problems have been ongoing for years now, but for some reason they continue despite efforts to correct the problem.  Read the full story in the BBC News HERE.

Posted by firegeezer on October 2, 2009 • Filed under: ambulances, dispatch

Getting An Early Jump on Haz-Mat Incidents

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THE SULLIVAN COUNTY, INDIANA, 9-1-1 DISPATCH CENTER has just installed a free upgrade that was offered for their dispatch software.  With this new feature that ties in with their mapping program, whenever an address is entered into dispatch that is listed as a hazardous material location, it will be displayed automatically along with full details of what is supposed to be there as well as pre-planned evacuation procedures.

WTHI-TV reports:

“The more information we receive, the more information we can give,” said Sullivan County 911 Director Holly Moody. “The safer everybody will be in the long run”

Moody said she’s not done yet. She hopes to add available building layouts and evacuation plans that could also come in handy in an emergency.

Posted by firegeezer on October 1, 2009 • Filed under: Haz-mat, dispatch

"What's That Address Again?"

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QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS, 9-1-1 DISPATCHER MIKE BOWES knew that something was breaking when all the incoming lines suddenly lit up on Friday night.  He tells the Boston Herald:

“I was talking to an EMT when the call came in, all the lines lit up red,” he said. “That happens when a lot of people call at once. I said ‘This isn’t good.’

The first one said, ‘My neighbor’s house and garage are on fire.’ I said ‘What’s the address?’ She said ‘My address is 105. The address there is 99 Hollis Ave.’ I thought ‘That’s my house!’ … I turned around and I was like ‘Sergeant – It’s my house.’ He said, ‘Go!’ One of the police officers said ‘Get in the car. I’ll take you.’ ”

He could see a sickening orange glow in the sky ahead. It was everything he owned burning. He didn’t know if his parents were out. As the cruiser rounded the corner he saw his house fully engulfed, but his parents safe in the street. The house, where he rented the first floor, was a total loss.

WCVB-TV Ch. 5 has a video report on the fire and an interview with Bowes:

Posted by firegeezer on October 1, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Police Told to Stay Out of Burning Buildings

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THE LAWRENCE, INDIANA, POLICE DEPARTMENT has issued orders to its patrolmen to stay out of burning buildings and not try to rescue trapped fire victims.  The regulation from the police chief also has the support of the city’s fire chief who both emphasize that when an officer goes into a fire building, he puts himself into danger that could complicate the rescue task for the firefighters.

The FD’s average response time is just over 4.5 minutes and the police are averaging an on-scene time of 2.5 minutes.  But the chief believes that the two-minute advantage is not sufficient to justify the police officer putting himself into such a potentialy dangerous position.

WRTV-TV Indianapolis has the video report on this controversial decision:

In order to emphasize further their insistance on complying with this directive, the police dispatchers will stop broadcasting locations of fire calls until after the FD marks on the scene.

Firegeezer notes:  This is certainly contrary to the way “it’s always been done.”  I can see that there are valid arguments to be advanced both for and against this type of policy.  Think it over and then let us know what you think about this decision.  Would you like to see something like that in your community?

Posted by firegeezer on September 17, 2009 • Filed under: Fire-ology, dispatch

"Where Are You?"

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THE SOLE SURVIVOR OF A PICKUP TRUCK CRASH was able to make a connection to 9-1-1 Saturday morning around 3:30 am.  The truck was carrying four passengers, all of whom are believed to have been drinking, when it blew through a stop sign and then crashed through a gate leading into a rock quarry.  After crashing the gate, the speeding truck went up an incline and was temporarily airborne before landing on two large boulders that had been placed as barricades to prevent vehicles from driving into the quarry.  After teetering on the boulders for a few seconds, the truck fell off and plunged approx. 170 feet to the bottom of the pit. 

quarry b tulsa world

Tulsa World photo

 Three of the four were killed immediately, but the survivor, a 19-yr.-old girl, was able to get a cellphone signal.  Unfortunately she didn’t know where she was, but the dispatcher was able to discern that she was in the north area of the city before they lost the signal.

Police, fire and EMS spent about an hour searching in vain for the wreck until 5 am when the survivor got another call through.  After 45 minutes of careful questioning, the dispatchers narrowed the location down to the rock quarry where  the rescuers eventually found her.

KOKI-TV Ch. 23 filed this video report from the crash site in the quarry:

The caller seems to be the person who was driving and she is hospitalized in critical condition.  She is expected to survive, however.

Tulsa dispatch has released four 9-1-1 tapes in which you can hear the dispatcher talking to the woman and finding out the necessary information.  She did a good job, you’ll agree.  You can listen to the tapes HERE.

The Tulsa World has more of the STORY HERE.

Channel 6 has a brief raw video of the extrication in progress:

Posted by firegeezer on September 7, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch, rescue

Dispatcher Denies Ambulance for Burned Infant

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AN EMERGENCY CALL-TAKER IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, has triggered an investigation after refusing to send an ambulance to a badly-burned infant.

The Local is reporting that the 1-yr.-old boy spilled a cup of hot tea on himself causing 2nd-degree burns to his face, neck and torso.  When his mother called the emergency dispatch number she was told that she should take the boy to the hospital herself.

The trip took 40 minutes and after arriving, the doctors immediately transferred the child via ambulance to a children’s hospital.

“What has happened is extremely unfortunate. It appears that we should have sent an ambulance. But I want to review the conversation before I say anything more,” Britt Stålhandske, deputy director of operations at SOS Alarm in Stockholm, told Aftonbladet newspaper.

Posted by firegeezer on August 9, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Dopey Dialers Are Everywhere

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE U. S. OF DIMWITS calling 9-1-1 to report being locked inside your own car, or getting a short order in a drive-thru window at a fast food restuarant, are not unique to this country after all.

The Daily Mirror is reporting from England:

A distraught music fan from Swindon has been accused of wasting police time after dialling 999 to report Michael Jackson’s death.

Great Western Ambulance Service took the call during the early hours of Friday morning as news reports of the King of Pop’s death began to appear across the world’s news media.

“You would think the word ‘emergency’ in emergency services would help people understand what calls we will and will not deal with,” emergency care practitioner Ben Jones told the Swindon Advertiser.

The news comes as police forces across the country have called on the public to use the 999 service only for genuine crisis situations.

Posted by firegeezer on July 3, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Dishonest Dispatcher Hearing Delayed

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EARLY FRIDAY MORNING THE PRELIMINARY HEARING against former Napa County, California, dispatcher Dannille Vanderpool was delayed until July 31.

Vanderpool is accused of defrauding several police and fire charitable organizations out of $50,000 by claiming that she had inoperable cancer.

See the previous Firegeezer reports HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Posted by firegeezer on June 2, 2009 • Filed under: crime, dispatch

Dispatcher Defrauds FF's, Cops For $50,000

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A FORMER NAPA, CALIFORNIA, POLICE DISPATCHER WAS CHARGED yesterday with 13 counts of grand theft, one count of forgery and one of identity theft, all felonies, after running a donation scam claiming that she had cancer.

Dannille Vanderpool worked for the Napa Police Dept. for four years and during that time she was honored as Dispatcher of the Year in 2006 and 2007.  According to the complaint filed with the court she falsely ran a donation campaign designed to raise money and among the major donors were $11,000 from the Napa Firefighters Assoc. and $5,800 from the Napa Police Officers Assoc.  Altogether more than $50,000 was collected, largely through the efforts of the Napa Firefighters who organized a variety of fund raising activities.

In an October, 2007 interview with the Napa Valley Register:

Vanderpool said she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001 and had five separate relapses, the most recent in May 2007. She told the Register at that time she had surgery and was able to return to work. Vanderpool also claimed then that the cancer was back again a month after surgery, leading to chemotherapy treatments. She said the chemo didn’t stop the disease and that doctors recommended surgery, but then determined her kidneys were failing and that she was too weak for surgery.

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She went so far as to shave her head, telling her co-workers that she was “getting ready” and didn’t want to wait until the chemotherapy caused it to drop out.  She had a photograph taken of her wearing a blue headscarf covering her bald pate and using it for publicity purposes during the fund drives.

The scam started falling apart when co-workers started noticing some discrepancies in the things she was telling them and the overseers of the bank trust checking account found an unrelated expenditure.

The Napa Valley Register has the STORY.

View one of the fund-raising flyers that contains a large measure of the fable about her “failing” condition HERE (in .pdf)

Posted by firegeezer on April 15, 2009 • Filed under: crime, dispatch

Another Dispatcher "Save" !

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IT’S CALL-TAKERS – 2,  DRIVERS – 0

Yesterday we brought you the story of the 9-1-1 call-taker who saved a woman from sweltering to death in her car in Florida (see Firegeezer story and 9-1-1 tape HERE).

Today we learn about the wonderful lady-at-the-console in Sherman, Texas, who saved the life of a Ferrari owner Wednesday morning. The caller seemingly spends a lot of money on booze and cars.  Play the video from KDFW-TV Dallas to hear this 9-1-1 tape:

Jeff Sabold, 48, was 110 miles away from where he thought he was.  His 2000 Ferrari sports a very low undercarriage clearance.  Or at least, it used to.  Jeff was charged with DUI and taken to the yardstick-on-the-wall room.

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We don’t know how he got home from there.  His car won’t start.

Let’s hear a big cheer for those unsung heroes everywhere, Our Dispatchers.

Posted by firegeezer on April 2, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Another 9-1-1 Call Taker Success Story!

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AN EMERGENCY DISPATCHER IN KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA, took a phone call Sunday from a distraught lady who was locked inside her car.

“Nothing electrical works. And it’s getting very hot in here, and I’m not feeling well,”  she wailed.  But Kissimmee’s Jacqueline-of-all-trades kept her calm and talked her through the complicated procedure of pulling up on the door-lock thingy.  She got out in time.

Listen to the 9-1-1 call HERE.

Posted by firegeezer on April 1, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Just Another Day In Dispatch

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A FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT, WOMAN REALLY, REALLY DIDN’T WANT her husband to leave her.  Robert Drawbough had come back from Los Angeles with the intention of seeing if they could save their marriage.  But his wife Helen wanted to make sure that it all worked out, so she arranged for him to stick around while they talked things out.

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Helen, the desperate wife
(Fairfield police photo)

Step One was putting fresh locks on the bedroom door so that he couldn’t get out when he woke up Monday morning.  And just to make sure, she went to Step Two, which involved handcuffing herself to him so that he couldn’t get away.  All this before he woke up.

Step Three was apparently unplanned because when he woke up and found the situation he was in, he tried to leave anyway and she went into a rage and started biting him all over his torso and arms.  A major tussle ensued and he had to call 9-1-1 to bring the cops and medics over.  He was definitely in some pain, as you can hear when you listen to the call on this video:

The New York Daily News summarizes the toothy turn of events:

“My wife has handcuffed me – she’s attacking me,” he moaned to an emergency dispatcher in suburban Fairfield. “Please come and help me get out of here.”

He told the puzzled dispatcher he couldn’t keep his wife Helen Sun, 37, away from him – and screamed in high-pitched agony when she dug her chompers into his flesh.

“Owwwww! Oh God. She’s biting my arm,” Drawbough exclaimed on the 911 tape. “I’m using every hand to keep her away from me. I need help.”

Drawbough said she lost it because he dumped her and she wanted to patch up their marriage.

“I divorced her, tried to leave her,” he said. “Please send police.”

The police broke down the front door to get into the home and unlocked the handcuffs to free Drawbough.  He was treated at the hospital for minor injuries and jilted Helen was arrested and charged with assault, reckless endangerment and unlawful restraint.

Posted by firegeezer on March 24, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Too Many Firefighters Can Be Dangerous

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THAT’S WHAT THE FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, FIRE CHIEF is giving as one of his reasons for not dispatching nearby volunteer fire companies to city alarms.

Dave Statter at STATter911 has been following this story since January 23 when a multi-alarm fire in a Fort Wayne apartment building exposed the FD’s dispatch practice of ignoring non-city stations.  The fire in question was literally just yards away from a volunteer firehouse, yet even though there were three alarms struck, the station was never dispatched.

Read the STATter911 stories HERE and HERE.  The first one has a good aerial view showing the location of the ignored firehouse in relation to the fire scene.

Initially, the chief advanced some plausible reasons for the practice, but yesterday he got some head-scratching going when he told a WANE-TV reporter that  “There is  a danger in sending too many people, sometimes…”

Watch this controversial interview here:

Firegeezer wonders:  Will today’s budget-cutters now start claiming that reducing staffing levels is actually a safety measure?

Posted by firegeezer on February 25, 2009 • Filed under: Fire-ology, dispatch

Only One Heart Attack Per Year Permitted

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“911 Emergency – May I have your VISA number please?”  That is how the residents of Castle Hills, Texas, might be greeted when they call for an emergency soon.

The San Antonio suburb is getting strapped with repeat-callers for ambulance services that are largely unnecessary and now the city council has passed what they call the First Responder’s Fee. If you call 911 and EMT’s respond to your house more than once in the same year, you’ll be charged a $55 fine.   If you have a fire or a police problem, though, you can call all you want.

So if you’ve already had your allotted angina attack for the year, then when the chest pains hit, you’ll have to find a neighbor who has not used his chit yet to call for you.

KENS-TV has the story of this innovative accounting feature along with a video report HERE 

Posted by firegeezer on February 19, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Speechless Invalid Still Sends Fire Alarm

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A KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, LADY IS UNABLE to speak or walk, but she’s a good “watcher.”  Mrs. Hayner has been confined to her bed since suffering a stroke but she keeps a whistle around her neck in case she needs to call her husband, retired police officer Harry, to her aid.

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Tuesday morning around 3:30 she could see smoke and flames from a neighbor’s house through her window and blew the whistle.

KCTV Ch. 5 tells the rest of the story in this video report:

Posted by firegeezer on February 11, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch

Another Dispatching Debacle

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Dave Statter at STATter911 has been keeping everybody informed on two recent dispatching disasters at Fort Wayne (HERE) and Atlanta (HERE).  Now worried about losing their reputation as the country’s most disfunctional city, the Detroit, Michigan, emergency dispatch center has entered dispatching derby with their own bit of muddle.

Detroit News reporter Charlie LeDuff got a phone call on Tuesday with a tip for him.  The caller told him that there was a dead body at the bottom of an elevator shaft in an abandoned warehouse, and the body was frozen in a pond of ice.  After getting directions on where it was, Charlie thought he’d better check out the veracity of the tip before calling the cops.  So off he went to see for himself, and sure enough, there was a body frozen in the ice.

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Detroit News photo

Charlie calls a policeman that he knows and tells him.  The cop tells him to call 911.  Doing as he was told, LeDuff calls the dispatch center and, telling them that he’s a reporter, passes along the information about the body in ice.

After struggling with a call-taker who couldn’t understand where this downtown warehouse is, he finally got the report filed.  Twenty minutes later, 911 calls him back and a different person asks again where the big 8-story building in the heart of downtown is.  Charlie tells him.  That’s contact with officialdom #3.

24 hours later on Wednesday, Charlie drops by the hard-to-find warehouse and sees no activity.  No crime scene tape.  Only a pair of legs sticking out of the ice.  So he calls 911 again.  The call-taker hangs up on him.  Phone call #5 follows shortly after and he goes through the routine again.  Shortly after that call, contact #6 is completed when a Detroit Fire engine company officer calls Charlie and they arrange to meet where the reporter can lead the mystical way to the body where the glacial extrication finally got underway.

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Detroit News

To properly appreciate this tale, you need to read the full story in Charlie LeDuff’s own words HERE.

Posted by firegeezer on January 30, 2009 • Filed under: dispatch