Police in Montgomery County, Maryland say a 911 call-taker “misunderstood the caller” Friday night when firefighters were sent to the wrong address for a report of a house fire. The Montgomery County Police Department operates the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) and issued a statement today (Monday) about the error. Two people and a dog were still in the home when firefighters arrived to handle a small bedroom fire. The original erroneous location is about ten miles from the home where the fire occurred.
Some things to note in the statement below. It took the ECC two to three minutes to dispatch the original call to the wrong location. NFPA standards say the call processing for this type of incident should be handled within 60-seconds, 90 percent of the time. The statement does not indicate if there were other cues missed that could have corrected the erroneous dispatch earlier.
