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Fire burns Walnut Creek home
By Malaika Fraley
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

WALNUT CREEK – An electrical malfunction sparked a two-alarm fire that caused $150,000 in damage to a Walnut Creek home today, the Contra Costa Fire District said.

Firefighters called to a Walnut Creek home at 9:53 a.m. found the front room engulfed in flames. The fire spread to a bedroom before it was extinguished 20 minutes later. Other rooms had heavy smoke and heat damage, said Battalion Chief Dave George.

Firefighters crawled into the house to search for an elderly woman that a man on the street feared was inside. They later learn the woman was away, George said. No one was injured.

The street was closed for three hours as crews mopped up.

Source: Contra Costa Times

The elderly woman is my mother. Fortunately, she was staying with me for the holidays when the fire broke out in her home.

I’m taking the time now to write because I feel the need to express my fears, frustration, and anger over our emergency response system. I must first preface this story by commending the brave men and women of the Pleasant Hill Fire Department and the kindness of the Walnut Creek Police and their dispatch unit.

I received a call on Thursday, December 28, 2006, my mother’s 77th birthday, from the Walnut Creek Police Department. Since I’m a training consultant for the City of Walnut Creek I initially did not think much of the call, but that quickly changed as I learned that my mother’s home was on fire and the fire department was attempting to find her. I let the officer know that my mother was not in the home and was safe with me.

I thought that the story was as simple as a house fire. Little did I know.

C.H.P. To Hire More 911 Dispatchers
After Complaints Of Backlog

Dec. 28 – KGO – This story is about something you hope never happens – a man called 911 on a cell phone today to report a fire, and was put on hold. The CHP says most 911 cell phone calls are routed to one call center, which can mean delays.

Max Burchett: “I tried to get 911 on the cell phone, but it never did go through.”

Max Burchett noticed flames shooting out of the living room window of his neighbor’s Walnut Creek home on his way to work. Worried the elderly disabled woman who lived there was inside, he pounded on the door, and then used his cell phone to call 911.

Max Burchett: “It said, if this is an emergency press any key – and it rang and rang and rang. A computer recording answered saying all our operators are busy.”

Frustrated, he called out to neighbors who got through to 911 on a land line. Fire crews converged on the quiet neighborhood in Walnut Creek and were able to extinguish the fire, luckily, no one was inside.

Alan Hartford, Contra Costa Fire Battalion Chief: “Unfortunately, the way the cell phone 911 system works, all the calls get routed to the CHP dispatch center. They’re working on a better fixes for 911 cellular usage — but as of right now it is what it is, and it’s unfortunate.”

The dispatch center in Vallejo handles 5,000 911 calls everyday. The positioning of cell towers in the Bay Area means all calls, except for parts of San Francisco and Marin County, are routed here. At any given moment, four to 11 operators are on call and it’s not uncommon to have to wait several minutes to be connected – but that’s about to change.

Elizabeth Gomes, CHP Dispatch Manager: “Currently, we’re in the process of hiring 40 to 50 new dispatchers within the next six to seven months and that will allow us to evenly distibute more people across our shifts and handle more 911 calls.”

So by summer 2007, cell phone users calling 911 should begin to notice a much faster response time.

Source: abc7news.com

Suppose my mother had been in that house? How many minutes were lost while Mr. Burchett risked his own life trying to gain access to the house while on hold with 911?

What scares me even more is that we have come to rely on our cell phones so heavily. I even armed my disabled mother with a cell phone and programmed a quick dial for 911 so she could carry it in her pocket at all times if an emergency was ever to occur. Suppose she had been trapped in that home when the fire broke out and called 911 on her cell and was put on hold? I sit here crying thinking about the possible outcome. While we may have lost possessions and pieces of family history we still have my mother. How many people may not have been as lucky as my mother and our family?

I know a lot of people who have given up their “land lines” in favor of cell phones; some for convenience some out of economical necessity. I have a lot of friends who have given their children cell phones because they think they will be “safer”. Many people have cell phones only for travel emergencies. We pay a state 911 tax on our cell phones to fund emergency services. So many count on these devices, but I wonder how many people will die while waiting on hold for a 911 operator…how many children will be abducted while trying to reach out for help with their cell phones?

If you do rely on your cell phone, program your local police department and local fire department’s numbers into your phone. Program friends who you know are home a lot and can call 911 from a “land line”. Don’t count on 911 from your cell phone.

We worry about web site accessibility on mobile devices when what we really need to worry about is access to emergency services on our mobile phones. Awareness needs to be brought to this issue because in my humble opinion summer of 2007 is not soon enough for change. I don’t live in a small town, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area; if this happens here, it can happen in your area — it can happen to you or your loved one.

The California Highway Patrol needs to hire and train more people now; “it is what it is” is not an acceptable answer when we’re talking about people’s lives.