Couple’s 000 scare

Emergency phone fail leaves pair to fight fire themselves

A SYDNEY woman says she was forced to leave her burning home and drive to a local fire station to get help during a triple-zero system failure.

Mary Anne Gongon says her husband received burns to 40 per cent of his body in a fire that tore through their Redfern home on Friday.

She left her husband at home to fight the fire while she drove to a fire station after not being able to call triple-zero.

“I started calling triple-zero but I just couldn’t get through,” Ms Gongon said.

“I tried at least twice. In my frustration, and while half naked, I grabbed the keys and drove to the fire station.”

Telstra believes lightning struck the cable pit in the NSW central-west about 2am on Friday, which resulted in “intermittent” issues with calls to emergency services in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the outage was a major concern and she wanted to make sure it wasn’t repeated.

“Of course that concerns us, we want to make sure when people need to get triple-zero at the most traumatic times of their lives that they’re able to get through,” Ms Berejiklian said in Sydney.

“We want to make sure that never happens again.” Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant said while telecommunication lines were the responsibility of the Commonwealth and Telstra, he planned to work with both parties to investigate the issue.

Mr Grant said NSW would be “initiating discussions with both Telstra and the Commonwealth to find a solution to ensure this does not occur again”.

I TRIED AT LEAST TWICE. IN MY FRUSTRATION, AND WHILE HALF NAKED, I GRABBED THE KEYS AND DROVE TO THE FIRE STATION MARY ANNE GONGON