TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen

Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen

Thor Lancelot Simon (tls@panix.com)
16 Dec 2004 23:20:36 -0500

In article <telecom23.601.1@telecom-digest.org>,
TELECOM Digest Editor <ptownson@telecom-digest.org> wrote:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As sad as this event is, *nothing*
> was said about the call to 911 going over VOIP, rather than the
> more usual transport for calls to 911, nor was it explained who the
> 'someone' was that gave an incorrect address to the dispatcher. Maybe
> one of our NYC readers can provide more background on this. PAT]

The story didn't say anything about VOIP because VOIP was either not
involved or entirely irrelevant. According to this morning's New York
Times, the caller who reported the fire was so flustered that he gave
the dispatcher *his* address as the building on fire instead of the
correct one (which was about a block away).

The real problem here is idiots (often building superintendents, or
tenants intimidated by complaints from their neighbors about door
slamming noise) who remove or defeat the extremely strong spring that
New York City requires as a self-closer on all apartment-door hinges.
With the required spring in place, the door basically _cannot_ stay
open when someone rushes out of an apartment after discovering a fire.
In this case, according to the Times, the tenant rushed out of the
apartment after discovering the fire and did not close the door; what
the Times failed to mention was that if the door had been in
compliance with the fire code, it would have closed itself.

Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com

"The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is
to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky

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