Atlanta 911 director changes tune after 911 calls are released. Retraining called for after first blaming caller. A pattern is developing.

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On January 19 we told you the story from Fort Wayne, Indiana, when city officials initially blamed a 911 caller for providing the wrong address for a triple-fatal fire. When the 911 calls were released it became pretty clear two call takers didn’t ask the right questions at the right time. We have yet to hear from anyone who has listened to the calls who believes this was the fault of the 911 caller.

Something similar happened in the outcry over the controversial house fire in Atlanta Saturday night after it took 22-minutes to get firefighters to the scene. Callers were left on hold at an overtaxed 911 center. On top of that, officials said a caller gave the wrong address.

Yes, the caller gave the wrong address. Sort of. The man reported it as 358 Grant Street. The correct address is 342 Atlanta Avenue. They are a mile apart. A big mistake? Maybe. You be the judge.

Read the transcript of the call in question (you can listen to it above):

Caller: Yes, we’ve got a fire at Atlanta Avenue.
911: Atlanta Avenue and what?
Caller: About three, 350, 358 Grant Street and Atlanta Avenue. On the corner.
911: What’s on fire? Is it a house?
Caller: It’s a house. It’s at the corner of Atlanta Avenue and Grant Street.
911: Anyone inside?
Caller: We don’t know.
911: Okay. I’ll send someone. I’ll send someone over.

358 Grant Street. Click the image for more.

Within a few seconds on Google Maps I could find out the cross streets for 358 Grant Street are Woodward Avenue and Logan Street. I assume this big city 911 center has an even better database of some sort. The call taker never challenged the information that didn’t compute.

The correct information for the location of the fire was actually contained in this first call. 342 Atlanta Avenue is on the northeast corner of Atlanta Avenue and Grant Street. Click here to see the Google Street View of the house that burned.

If you listen to the call carefully, I think you might even come to the conclusion that the caller isn’t even saying 358 Grant Street. They appear to me to be two different thoughts. My impression is the man was trying to come up with a specific address, but couldn’t, and then just gave the intersection.

On Tuesday, after listening to the very same 911 calls, the man who runs the city’s 911 center blamed this error, not on any of his people, but on getting the wrong address and the procedures they must follow. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Miles Butler, director of Atlanta’s 911 Communications Center, said the call-taker worked with the address that was given.

“I did review the tapes, and when we receive an address with clean numbers, we have to respond to the location,” Butler said. “Yes, he did give the intersection but also numbers, and that is what populated as a confirmed address. It’s a Catch-22 if the fire was at the other location and the fire apparatus were sent to the intersection.”

Is that how it really works? You have conflicting information, but you go with the “clean numbers” rather than someone twice giving you an intersection. You don’t ask more questions or use some of the other tools at your disposal? Really? Of course not.

Now let’s look at today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here’s the headline –

Atlanta 911 chief: Grant Park fire call mishandled

Miles Butler now says retraining is in order. He told the paper, “If there’s something that doesn’t correlate, continue to verify it. Get that person to commit. You have to be thorough.”

If I was in Atlanta covering this, I would be asking Mr. Butler a few questions: Did you really not figure out retraining for your people was in order on your first listen of the 911 calls back on Tuesday? If you didn’t, what changed between Tuesday and Thursday? Who came up with that policy you mentioned on Tuesday about clean numbers and is that procedure still in place?

I have a more important question about the incidents in Fort Wayne and Atlanta: When did it become okay to try and make well-intentioned citizens the scapegoats for what are clearly training and procedure issues in your own organizations?

Please let me know, as you always do, if you think any of these questions are unfair.