( Part One of this story examines the performance of San Diego's Reverse 911 system in the October 2007 wildfires.
Last month's wildfires put first responders to the test. More than 15,000 firefighters fought the battle. But many of the first responders were nowhere near the flames. They were holed up in a 911 dispatch center, taking calls from thousands of people. Yesterday we told you what happens when 911 calls you. For Part Two of our story, here's KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps.
So, what happens when you call 911?
Christine Meyer might pick up at San Diego police headquarters.
Meyer : 911, do you have an emergency? Now, they hung up. So what I'm gonna do is figure out where it is. See, it's 401 West A, 401 West A, it's First National Bank. So let's hope they're not having a robbery.
A computer screen instantly pinpoints this call on a map. Meyer says that's crucial information.
Meyer : Location, location, location. Without a location, you have no place to send someone. So that's your utmost and most important thing. You know, even if they hang up, you at least have some place to send them.
Meyer contacts the bank, but the call turns out to be a false alarm.
Whatever the emergency, 911 calls start here, at your local law-enforcement agency. During the wildfires, Meyer worked 12-hour shifts — along with many of the people closest to her.
Meyer : My son, my nephew, and my brother-in-law all work for Cal Fire, and they were all in that fire. My sister works in dispatch at Cal Fire. My brother was a Highway Patrol blocking the road up in Temecula. There was just so much family involved in it, plus friends, plus people here. We had Rita on the radio who didn't even know if her place was there. And several buildings around her burned.
But there was no time to fret about that. Meyer says she drew on 20 years of crisis training: Get the person's location, stay calm, and don't hang up.
911 dispatcher :You're inside your house?
Caller: Yeah, I'm inside.
911 dispatcher: Is it on fire? Where is the fire in the house? Hello? Hello?
Meyer : You had a lot of people that were worried about their parents. I had no less than 20 calls on people going, ‘My father's an invalid. He can't get out.’ One woman called me from LA. She was trying to get down here, but the freeway was blocked. And she said her mother wouldn't open the door for anyone.
And there were calls from elderly people themselves.
The caller says she lives on Highland Valley Road , near Poway. But firefighters didn't find her there. She gave the wrong address. So, was she making it up? Or was she just panicked?
Paula Bryant, who manages the dispatch center, says communication problems are common with older callers.
Bryant : When they get stressed, they revert to -- maybe they've only lived there for a year, and they've lived somewhere else for 10 years, and they'll revert to that old address.
Didn't the dispatcher have that woman's address on the screen? Maybe not, not if the woman called on a cellphone. Bryant says contrary to popular belief, cell phones provide minimal location data.
Bryant : It's like if I call 911 on my cell phone from this building, they have no idea where I am in this building. They know that I'm on this block. But even with GPS, they can't find me in this building.
The San Diego Police Department received more than 47,000 911 calls last month. About half of those were from cell phones. Authorities urged people to stay off their cell phones during the fires, because wireless networks can get clogged in emergencies. Bryant says a lot of callers got busy signals.
Bryant : I have no delay was that first night, but I'm sure it was huge. You know, you can never really prepare enough for that. There were people that called up, I'm coming in but I'm also being evacuated. I'm loading my car. I'll be there as soon as I can.
Bryant's own family was evacuated from Alpine. But she says no one at the dispatch center lost their home.
Andrew Phelps, KPBS News.
