By Selim Algar, The New York Post
East Hampton Town, N.Y. — A beloved former Hamptons fire chief died from a heart attack after emergency crews responded to the wrong house because of a bizarre address mix-up.

Sherri Ross frantically but clearly told a 911 dispatcher to send crews to 419 Montauk Highway in Wainscott on Nov. 14 after her husband, Lanny, started experiencing chest pains and gasping for breath.

But an unidentified male dispatcher mistakenly sent ambulances to 419 Montauk Highway in East Hampton, more than five miles away from where Sherri Ross had placed the panicked call.

In an odd quirk, there are four 419 Montauk Highways in East Hampton Town – one each in Amagansett, East Hampton, Wainscott and Montauk.

“He was dying in front of me,” the distraught widow said Friday after spending a mournful Thanksgiving without her husband of 13 years.

“I performed CPR on him, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I shouldn’t have had to do it myself.”

Ross said that it took dispatchers more than 10 minutes to realize they had sent crews to the wrong address as her 51-year-old husband’s breathing — and her teenage daughter’s frantic screams — grew increasingly desperate.

“They kept telling me that they were here,” Ross said. “But there was no one in front of the house. I didn’t know what to tell them at that point. I just wanted help.”

Despite having responders stationed minutes from Ross’ home, it took emergency crews more than 13 minutes to finally arrive at the house. Lanny Ross was rushed to Southampton Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

East Hampton Village Administrator Larry Cantwell said that a dispatcher clicked on the wrong town in a drop-down menu on a computer screen and that he would be disciplined.

“We are doing what we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said. “It was a tragic mistake.”

But despite the admitted blunder on the part of East Hampton officials, the heartbroken wife said she has no plans to sue and doesn’t want the dispatcher to be terminated.

“I’m not interested in money or anyone losing their job,” she said. “I just don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through that night. It was a nightmare. The worst part is never knowing if he could have been saved if that mistake wasn’t made.”

Four properties in East Hampton Town have the address 419 Montauk Highway. There is one each in Wainscott, the village of East Hampton, Amagansett and Montauk. A recent mistake by a town emergency dispatcher sent an ambulance to the wrong 419 Montauk Highway as a 51-year-old man suffered a fatal heart attack.

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