911 dispatchers suspended for botched call

Two dispatchers from Valley Emergency Communications Center have been suspended for sending fire crews to the wrong address as panicked family members watched their house burn.

An internal investigation by VECC determined the dispatchers were partly to blame for an incident Sunday that resulted in a 10- to 15-minute delay in firefighters being sent to a house fire in South Jordan.

The fire near 9900 South and 1300 West caused up to $450,000 damage. Everyone in the house, including seven children, made it out safely.

A call log released Friday by VECC showed more than 30 calls to 911 reporting the fire. Multiple callers can be heard on copies of the 911 tapes pleading for crews to hurry.

"We're in a panic here; this place is going up," one neighbor told 911.

"The flames are on the roof; get here fast," another woman told the 911 dispatcher.

But initially, fire crews from Salt Lake County and Sandy were dispatched to a house on Wasatch Boulevard. On the 911 tapes at least two dispatchers can be heard asking callers if the house was on Wasatch. Friday, VECC officials blamed the problem on a combination of human error and errors within VECC's computer system.

VECC dispatchers have two computer screens in front of them when they work. One screen flashes the address of a caller. The caller's address is based on Qwest's directory. The other screen is used for dispatchers to send information to emergency crews.

The address that popped up on the Qwest screen was correct, said VECC Deputy Director Gary Lancaster. The caller even told the dispatcher the correct address, he said.

But when the dispatcher hit a function key to transfer the address onto the other computer screen, the information copied incorrectly, Lancaster said. That is where the computer system failed.

However, the biggest mistake happened when the dispatcher failed to double-check the address from one screen to the other. The dispatcher sent the information to fire crews without verifying it. That happened with two different dispatchers, something that surprised Lancaster because of the training the 911 dispatchers go through.

"In training we stress we verify information," Lancaster said. "A lot of time is spent on trying to verify."