Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 7 May 91 12:28:38 GMT From: Mark Eckenwiler Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: New Phone Numbers for NYC Fire Department Message-ID: Organization: The Witherspoon Excludables Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 343, Message 4 of 13 Lines: 28 In article peanut!dts@uunet.uu.net (Daniel Senie) writes: > The City, of course, bought the phones and computers, and didn't hire > any additional operators. Response time did not improve. > When I lived in NYC, I always kept the phone numbers for the local > police and fire stations near the phone. If there was an emergency you > really didn't want to risk life and property on 911 response times. Recent experience bears out this observation. Last December, there was a fire in one of the Brooklyn subway tunnels. Literally dozens of citizens called 911 to request fire and ambulance assistance -- the primary danger being *extreme* smoke inhalation -- only to get no answer, to get cut off during a transfer, or to get the response that squad cars were on the way. When the proper emergency services were eventually dispatched, they were sent at first to a station on a *different* subway line. A number of passengers died, as I recall. There was a *HUGE* series of recriminations after the fact, and 911 is being (in theory) revamped, although NYC's present budget woes probably preclude any meaningful improvement. Mark Eckenwiler eck@panix.uucp ...!cmcl2!panix!eck