A full response from Seattle Fire — and CHS following close behind — was deployed Saturday night to the usually quiet 17th Ave E for a report of a house fire at 17th and E Garfield. One problem: The call was actually for a reported house fire in Queen Anne. The best news is that SFD figured the problem out, quickly began another response and the W Garfield call-out was quickly closed as the situation wasn’t as serious as first feared. We’ll check in to learn more about how the mix-up occurred but the lesson is to make sure to emphasize your Capitol Hill street directionals if you are ever need to call 911. Oh, and if you live on or near Howe or Howell, try to stay calm and enunciate, too.
CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News
Community News For All of Seattle's Capitol Hill
I’m a 911 dispatcher and I thought I’d use this story to pipe in with a handy little link from King County: http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/E911/911CallingBasics.aspx
It has some very basic info about calling 9-1-1 and things that are helpful to know. Sending units to the wrong location isn’t unheard of and it could have been the caller or the call receiver’s doing. But, the most important thing when calling 9-1-1 is to know where you are. If we don’t know where you are, we can’t send help to you. If you really don’t know where you are, listen to the call receiver and work with them to let them help you figure out where you are.
Regarding the first comment by 911 tips, the city and county have gone to the trouble of having an E911 system meaning “enhanced” so that even if you’re calling from a cell phone the 911 call center should be able to figure out where you are or at least approximately if they don’t have exact GPS coordinates. Yes, you probably should know where you are, but the system should be able to find you unless you’re using a de-activated cell phone and even then approximate coordinates should be available to the 911 center.
At the same time this is up on CHB there’s also a long post about the 230 Broadway project which is actually 230 Broadway East. Seems like a lesson CHB should take to heart as well!