Dave Statter Profile picture
Dec 26, 2022 12 tweets 8 min read Read on X
(1) NEW: A @dcfireems battalion chief spotted this fire yesterday & called it in via the radio. But he had a very difficult time getting @OUC_DC to dispatch the call. It took more than 3 minutes. Very similar to the tragic 708 Kennedy St NW. First, your history lesson. (more) Image
(2) Watch: It took 4 mins to dispatch @dcfireems to a @DCPoliceDept officer desperately calling for help for 2 people trapped in the burning Kennedy St home in 2019. One of numerous excuses by @OUC_DC's Karima Holmes was that getting such calls by radio was extremely rare. (more)
(3) It was absurd then & is now for anyone to accept that a major city 911 center has more difficulty handling a report of a fire coming in by radio than by a 911 call. So, let's dissect what went wrong yesterday to better understand why @OUC_DC still can't get this right. (more) Image
(4) Listen: At 2:12 p.m. the special operations battalion chief reported, via radio, a house fire at 902 Longfellow St NW (FYI, just 3 blks from 708 Kennedy St NW). The chief, when asked, verified the address a second time. (more)
(5) Listen: About 45 seconds later the dispatcher asked the chief to verify the address a third time. (more)
(6) Listen: Almost 90 seconds after he first called in, the chief was told by the dispatcher that the computer aided dispatch (CAD) system didn't accept 902 Longfellow St NW & asked him to repeat the address a 4th time. This time he just said "Longfellow & 9th St." (more)
(7) Let's pause in our listening to fathom that somehow @OUC_DC computer system won't accept the address 902 Longfellow St. NW. Very strange. Google Maps takes you right to it & even gives you a picture of the house. Wonder what that's about. (more) ImageImageImage
(8) Listen: A little more than 2 minutes after he first picked up the radio the chief was told the call was finally in the computer and would be dispatched. (more)
(9) Listen: And at more than 3 minutes after this began @dcfireems was finally dispatched to the house fire at 902 Longfellow St NW. Thankfully, this time there weren't two people trapped in the burning home waiting for firefighters to be sent. Two people who died. (more)
(10) The overall problem isn't what happened yesterday. It's that @MayorBowser didn't seriously probe 911's role in the 2019 deaths of Yafet Solomon & Fitsum Kebede. No outside investigation then or with the 9 deaths we've learned of since where there were 911 mistakes. (more) ImageImage
(11) @MayorBowser has constantly defended DC 911 & its leadership. She seems very happy with the status quo & has indicated that despite being forced to withdraw her nomination, a departure date for Karima Holmes is fluid. (more)
(12) History lesson 2: When just one man -- David Rosenbaum -- died in 2006 there were urgent calls to reform EMS & a task force formed. 11 people have died since 2019 where DC 911 screwed up, yet no @PostOpinions editorials & no leaders urgently demanding reform. #FixDC911 NOW!! Image

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More from @STATter911

Aug 28, 2023
(1) The @dcdistrictdogs flood shows @MayorBowser's administration doesn't care who gets hurt in its quest to keep DC911/@OUC_DC's mistakes buried. The fact they still refuse to admit what happened is part of a years-long shameful pattern. Here's a history lesson. (more)
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(2) 4 years ago this month @MayorBowser shielded @OUC_DC from a multi-agency investigation of the tragic 708 Kennedy St NW fire that killed Yafet Solomon & Fitsum Kebede. As with @dcdistrictdogs, OUC gave non-sensical answers to key questions. (more)
thedcline.org/2020/08/18/dav…
(3) 4 years before Kennedy St., @MayorBowser showed she didn't want outsiders probing DC911/@OUC_DC. Her administration refused a @NTSB recommendation for an OUC operations audit after the deadly L'Enfant Plaza Metro fire. It was never done. The fire killed Carol Glover. (more) Image
Read 13 tweets
Aug 22, 2023
(1) NEW: In a press conference where she made things worse & not better, DC911 boss Heather McGaffin's unusual excuses for a major 911 failure aren't passing the smell test. None more so than blaming a dispatcher who "misspoke" for the 15 min. delay sending emergency help. (more) Image
(2) LISTEN: McGaffin kept saying a dispatcher simply "misspoke" when he dispatched the initial call to @dcdistrictdogs as a "water leak". What she didn't explain is how a different dispatcher on a different channel also misspoke 3 minutes later, using the very same words. (more)
(3) A likely explanation for this coincidence of the pair misspeaking in the exact same way is that it wasn't a coincidence at all. They likely both read from the dispatch computer where this call was misclassified as a non-emergency "water leak" or "public assist". (more) Image
Read 12 tweets
Aug 21, 2023
(1) BREAKING: DC911/@OUC_DC's Heather McGaffin finally admits DC911 messed up in the @dcdistrictdogs response. As we told you last Monday the 15-minute delay would come down to what the first 911 callers said. They said plenty about how bad the situation was. It was an EMERGENCY! The walls were coming down during the flooding with people & dogs inside. But DC911 dispatched this as a non-emergency water leak. (more details to come)

The release of this information and the 911 transcripts would not have come without the outrage of the people impacted, some tenacious reporters & @ZacharyforWard5.
(2) At the press conference McGaffin called this an "unprecedented incident" that OUC "hadn't fully prepared ourselves for or our staff for". That's an astounding statement. A 911 center that isn't prepared to understand flooding in a building where a wall has come in & people & dogs are inside is an EMERGENCY is not prepared to do the job on a daily basis. This is not unprecedented. (more) @ANCCostello @RealTimeNews10 @RamirezReports @SegravesNBC4 @tomsherwood
(3) In the press conference, which I am just replaying, McGaffin talks about DC911/@OUC_DC needing to do a better job of relaying the dispatch notes/updates. That's something STATter911 has pointed out for years. Last year I had a top official at OUC tell me reading those is the job of @dcfireems. (more)
Read 4 tweets
Jul 17, 2023
(1) This evening, yet another example of DC911/@OUC_DC making the same mistakes over & over because of a lack of leadership, supervision, situational awareness & training. As usual, @dcfireems saved the day. Listen in the next tweet. (more) @CMBrookePinto @SafeDC @MayorBowser Image
(2) LISTEN: At 6:41 pm DC911/@OUC_DC sent Engine 6 & Truck 4 to 1730 7th St for alarm bells. At 6:45 pm DC911 sent a full structure fire assignment of 13 units to the same address, totally forgetting they sent E6 & T4 just 4 minutes earlier. (more)
(3) Thankfully Engine 6 caught the mistake & alerted DC911/@OUC_DC. This type of error--it happens frequently--has caused confusion, missed assignments on the fireground & wastes resources. You have to wonder how this gets by the supervisors & dispatchers so often. (more) Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 16, 2023
(1) Within 4 minutes today DC911/@OUC_DC dispatched 3 separate assignments sending @dcfireems to these locations for a crash:
• 2:50 a.m. Washington Blvd. & Memorial Ave. SW
• 2:52 a.m. Lincoln Memorial Circle NW
• 2:53 a.m. Rock Creek Pkwy & Ohio Dr. NW
(more)
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(2) It should be obvious to anyone at DC911/@OUC_DC all 3 are likely the same crash. I get that the locations need to be checked but why didn't dispatchers let the responding units know what was going on? Why, as usual, did they leave @dcfireems in the dark? (more) Image
(3) The @dcfireems units couldn't even hear for themselves that they were all operating in the same area, likely on the same call, because one of the units was assigned a different radio channel. (more) Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 12, 2023
(1) Right on cue--as if we needed more evidence--DC911/@OUC_DC helped to further justify @councilofdc's OUC transparency act. When @CaseyNolen did a story about the emergency legislation OUC refused to comment. Of course they did. But there's more. (more) @CMBrookePinto @SafeDC
(2) A key point of the emergency act that passed yesterday is real data on daily staffing. The staffing stats are something STATter911 has pushed for over many months. Why? Because we now learn even @ChmnMendelson couldn't get a live person on the phone when calling 911. (more)
(3) Watch: @ChmnMendelson tells a story so many others told us over the last year -- no call-taker picked up when he called 911. It seems to be the rule rather than the exception that 911 in the nation's capital doesn't answer right away. (more)
Read 9 tweets

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