City dumps 911 rule blamed for delays, deaths
IT’S BACK to the future for the city’s emergency call system now that City Hall has scrapped a controversial 911 protocol blamed for slower — and deadly — response times.
Gone is the Unified Call Taking system, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (photo) answer to emergency call dispatching in New York City. Starting immediately, 911 operators will connect callers reporting a fire to FDNY dispatchers, authorities said.
And it all starts with a simple question: “What is your emergency?”
Under the Bloomberg UCT system — a costly $2 billion overhaul to city’s 911 system — callers were immediately asked for a location, one of several questions asked before a computer-generated ticket was sent to fire dispatchers.
That was supposed to be more efficient and more accurate, with 911 operators in primary control while specially trained fire dispatchers played a lesser role.
But critics said it was a public safety disaster. It took longer for fire dispatchers to get critical information and limited their ability to question the caller.
It also led to a series of delays and errors — and deaths that unions blamed on the UCT system.
In November 2009, three Bangladeshi immigrants died in a Woodside, Queens, house fire.
A mistaken computer transmission from a 911 operator sent Engine 292, located two blocks from the fire scene, in the wrong direction. The engine company had to make a circuitous 10-block trip before getting to the right address — a costly four-minute, 55-second delay. That same month, a dad and his two kids died in a Brooklyn apartment fire blamed on burning incense. Unions said it was a UCT mixup. The FDNY said the 911 caller gave a wrong address. Now, under terms of a deal reached by City Hall, the NYPD and the FDNY, emergency operators will return to the oldschool method of transferring fire or medical emergency calls to fire department dispatch or EMS dispatch. “We expect this will improve overall our responses to fires by having fire alarm dispatchers speak immediately with callers, quickly getting more accurate information about the fire and the location of any trapped occupants, and reducing call processing time,” the FDNY said in a statement.
The shift was welcome news to city fire unions.
“To its credit, the de Blasio administration has rightfully given the phone call interrogation back to the Fire Department for fire-related incidents, and that’s a wonderful thing for public safety,” said Faye Smith, president of the Uniformed Fire Dispatchers Benevolent Association.
Gerard Fitzgerald, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said union concerns kicked in after UCT got up and running in 2009, and dispatchers noticed delays in service.
“Always, our argument is any type of delay can be costly,” Fitzgerald said. “The earlier we get the information, the earlier we get accurate information, the faster we’ll be able to respond.”