Two years ago, DC911 had a meltdown when the dispatch computer crashed one afternoon. It resulted in dispatchers failing to verify that paramedics were responding to a dying infant. Precious time was lost. It was clear that day that the staff at DC911’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC) wasn’t well-versed in running the operation during a computer crash. Leaders promised to do better.

Early this morning, the computer was down again. This time, it was a planned outage for maintenance. Despite knowing well ahead of time that the dispatch computer would be offline for a few hours, it didn’t take long for OUC to prove it still isn’t prepared to handle an outage. After just 20 minutes without the computer, DC911 dispatched 13 DC Fire & EMS units to the wrong location for a vehicle striking a building.

The correct location was just outside the checkpoints on the White House’s west side. Fifteen minutes were lost when fire and EMS were dispatched to a location on Capitol Hill, 17 blocks to the east. Before the incident was over, dispatchers blew the address two additional times.

The timeline

2:21 a.m. – Units were dispatched to #17 G Street NW. That address is just off of N. Capitol Street, west of Union Station. (Radio traffic and video at the top of this page)

2:28 a.m. – The battalion chief in charge had to call three times to get someone to answer. The chief let dispatchers know there was no vehicle that struck a building at that location. The dispatcher said the call came from U.S. Park Police. She called them back.

2:30 a.m. – The battalion chief was notified that the correct location was at 17^th Street and G Street NW, and not 17 G Street NW. Someone got it wrong.

2:36 a.m. – The first fire and EMS units arrived at 17^th Street NW. They quickly determined there were no serious injuries or damage. Most of the fire and EMS units were sent back, while Tower 3 remained on the scene to deal with a couple of injured people.

2:43 a.m. – Tower 3 requested another ambulance at 17^th & G. The radio traffic directly above shows they clearly said “G Street.”

2:46 a.m. – Ambulance 23 was dispatched, but dispatchers didn’t send them to 17^th & G NW. The ambulance was sent to 17^th & P NW, about nine blocks away.

2:47 a.m. – The battalion chief heard the bad dispatch and called OUC on the radio to make sure Ambulance 23 was sent to the correct location. His correction didn’t take.

2:49 a.m., Ambulance 23 confirmed they were responding and asked if the correct location was 17^th & P NW. The dispatcher said, “That’s what Tower 3 requested.” Despite the battalion chief stepping in, the bad address still wasn’t corrected. This time Tower 3 jumped on the radio with a terse message: “I said 17^th & G.” Six minutes after the ambulance was requested, the crew was finally given the correct address.