By Timothy Puko, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Original publication date: Dec. 23

Pittsburgh — A mistake by a 911 operator delayed some city firefighters by nearly four minutes on their way to a North Side fire this week, the second time since August the dispatch center botched an emergency call from Overlook Street, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials said Wednesday.

The county operator knew the call came from the North Side but picked the incorrect street in the 911 computer system, mistakenly sending firefighters about three miles to Overlook Court on Washington’s Landing early Tuesday, county Emergency Services Director Bob Full said.

The operator heard the dispatch go out to the wrong neighborhood and then may have spent several minutes trying to change the neighborhood in the computer before reporting the mistake directly to the dispatcher, Full added. The county is disciplining the call-taker, whom Full did not identify.

“We’re not sure what she was trying to do there,” he said. “I gotta tell you, this Overlook here, there’s no excuse for how this call was processed. I have no tolerance for this kind of error. It’s basic 911 call handling 101.”

Full declined to discuss the discipline. He said the call-taker has been a 911 operator for more than 10 years. She has had no discipline problems since 2006, he said. A union representative could not be reached for comment.

County Executive Dan Onorato called for a full investigation but declined further comment through a spokeswoman.

The delay caused no further damage, city Fire Chief Darryl Jones said. One firetruck immediately left for Overlook Street as a precaution, limiting the problem, he said.

“It could have been critical (without that),” he said. “Our company’s officers are supposed to be enterprising. They’re aware of their districts, they’re aware of the type of buildings that they have, and sometimes you operate on past experience. That’s called situational awareness.”

The two-alarm fire caused about $30,000 in damage but did not injure anyone, according to a release from Jones’ office. The home’s four residents could not be reached for comment. The fire killed two pets. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in less than half an hour.

City officials have been working on the Overlook problem and trying to fix duplicate street names since August, when a similar 911 mistake sent city paramedics to Overlook Drive in Schenley Park instead of to a choking victim on the North Side street. The woman survived despite a 13-minute delay.

There are three streets named Overlook in the city. The city’s Address Committee is changing the street numbers in Schenley Park to avoid confusion.

It’s likely to change the name and numbers of Overlook in Washington’s Landing, the newest of the Overlook streets, said Ray DeMichiei, deputy director of city Emergency Management and the committee’s leader.

City and county workers have been aware of the problem since the August mistake, but the dispatcher botched the call anyway. She didn’t enter “street” as she typed in the address — something call-takers are trained to do — and then chose the wrong Overlook from a drop-down menu on her computer screen, Full said.

“Obviously it’s a very significant problem,” said City Councilwoman Theresa Smith, who chairs council’s Public Safety Services Committee. “These are issues dealing with life and death. It’s absolutely an issue that needs to be resolved immediately.”

Less than a month after the first Overlook mistake, 911 operators sent paramedics to Bigelow Boulevard in Oakland instead of Bigelow Square, Downtown, where a man collapsed and later died. On Sept. 12, workers confused the location of a fatal fire on Ella Street in McKees Rocks with Ella Street in Bloomfield.

Neighbors on Overlook said they were a little concerned. Joy Efthimiades has lived next door to what’s now a burned-out house for 40 years and had a fine response when her brother called 911 because he fell on the street outside a few years ago, she said.

“It’s not a matter that we need to change the streets. We need to educate the people who run the system,” she said. “Everybody makes mistakes. It is frustrating, but we’re not perfect people.” 

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