(1) NEW: Once again, DC 911 failed to effectively use the technology DC residents paid for to confirm an address. They missed the location of a car crash by almost 3 miles & lost 12 minutes, even though the correct information was available to them. (more)
(2) At 3:58 Tuesday morning, DC 911 dispatched @dcfireems Engine 10 & Ambulance 3 to 12th St. & Maryland Ave. in Northeast for a crash. (more)
(3) At 4:06 am, Engine 10 reported they found nothing at 12th & Maryland in Northeast and asked the dispatcher to check back with the person who called 911. (more)
(4) At 4:09 am, almost 3 minutes after Engine 10 asked for the call back, Engine 10 asked again. They were told to standby as the dispatcher continued to talk with the caller. At 4:10 am, the dispatcher confirmed the correct address was 12th & Maryland in Southwest. (more)
(5) At 4:11 am, 12 minutes after the initial, wrong dispatch, DC 911 finally sent other @dcfireems units to 12th & Maryland Avenue SW. Somehow, DC 911 staff either failed to see or ignored information that would have told them much earlier this call wasn't in Northeast. (more)
(6) STATter911 has learned location determining technology (LDT) showed the 911 caller was approximately 150 feet from 12th & Maryland in Southwest. This should have alerted 911 staff the Northeast address they typed in & data from the caller's phone were in conflict. (more)
(7) If you recall, a similar thing happened when a car crashed into a building at 14th & Florida NW nine days ago. @dcfireems was sent to 14th & Florida NE first. (more)
(8) These two failures are far from isolated incidents. It's a systemic problem. This specific issue was a key finding outlined by @ODCA_DC in its report more than a year ago. The report made clear @OUC_DC staff doesn't trust using LDTs to help confirm addresses. (more)
(9) The @ODCA_DC report said the failure to use the technology is really a cultural one. The report blamed leadership: "The work environment is lacking oversight, mentorship, & guidance." (more)
(10) Meanwhile, @OUC_DC continues to be run by a lame duck acting director whose name was withdrawn from nomination by @MayorBowser because she didn't have the @councilofdc votes. Good move by the Council, but someone needs to get solid leadership running OUC ASAP. #FixDC911
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(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)
(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)
(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)
(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)
(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)
(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
(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)
(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)
(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)
(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)
(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)