911 log shows time lapse in Powell emergency call

TACOMA, Wash. — Nearly eight minutes elapsed between when a social worker called 911 to report that Josh Powell's children were in danger and when sheriff's deputies were dispatched, emergency call logs show. The home was a gas-fueled inferno - with Powell and his two young boys inside - by the time officers were on their way.

Several minutes of response time was lost when the priority of the dispatch Sunday was listed as "routine" instead of "emergency." There was nothing deputies could do when they arrived 14 minutes later.

The Associated Press obtained the logs Wednesday night under a public records request.

Recently released audio recordings of the 911 calls raised questions about how the dispatch center handled the social worker's call regarding Powell, who was a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife two years ago.

The worker detailed how Powell had locked her out of his house during what was supposed to be a supervised visit with his sons, that she could smell gas, and that she feared for their lives.

Minutes later, Powell torched the home, killing himself and the boys.

The recordings showed that the man who took the 911 call engaged in nearly seven minutes of questioning that ended with him saying he didn't know how long it would be before deputies could arrive. "We have to respond to emergency life-threatening situations first," he said.

"I see two problems: The delay in the dispatch, and they dispatch it as a routine call," Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said. "Had our guy been going priority, and had they dispatched it in the first three minutes, we probably could have shaved 10 minutes off our response — but there's no way we get there in time."

The logs show that the social worker called 911 from her cellphone at 12:08 p.m., but it took two minutes into the call to find the home's address. Three minutes later, the man who took her call transferred the information to a dispatcher, who alerted two deputies about 2½ minutes later, at 12:16.

At precisely that time, calls poured in reporting explosions at the house about 35 miles south of Seattle — apparently from the fire blowing out windows. The first deputy arrived at 12:30 to find the home engulfed in flames.

Troyer said the sheriff's office was disappointed that the initial operator left the impression that help wasn't immediately on the way.