Firefighters sent astray by call system

By Maria Clark

Firemen had to follow the smoke to Fabian Echeviarri’s burning car.

After a call came into the firehouse May 1 that sent them seven blocks away from the actual fire to West 233rd Street and Broadway, they used their eyes and ears instead.

“We arrived at 233rd Street and started driving north looking for the fire,” said a fireman who responded to the call and spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules. When they reached West 235th Street, they were finally able to see the smoke rising from the burning vehicle, he said.

Mr. Echeviarri was in his car at the intersection of Van Cortlandt Park South and Broadway when it caught fire. He was able to get out safely because a good Samaritan alerted him it was ablaze. Firefighters were able to put out the fire quickly — but only once they found their way to the scene.

Though there is always room for human error, the incident appears to stem from issues with the city’s Unified Call-Taking System, which was implemented last May and has sent firemen to wrong addresses throughout the five boroughs, according to several sources contacted by The Press.

Promoted as a way to streamline the call-taking process when someone dials 911, the $2 billion upgrade to the old 911 system has been lauded by the mayor and the fire commissioner for speeding up response time.

Under the old system, a dispatcher from the police department would gather a person’s information and get the fire department on the line via conference call when necessary. The caller would then repeat his or her situation directly to a fire dispatcher.

Now, fire dispatchers have been cut out of the equation entirely. All calls are streamlined through police dispatchers, who then relay the information to the FDNY through electronic text.

“The city is dispatching us quicker, with less information,” said a fireman who works in Riverdale but did not respond to the call on May 1.

“When we get the ticket in the firehouse, it spits out a piece of paper with an address,” he said. “En route we get more information about the incident.”

Firefighters interviewed said they are often sent to incorrect addresses. Despite City Hall’s claims that concerns about the UCT system are being addressed, errors remain frequent, said the fireman who answered the call about the burning car.

“They send out as little information as possible, just to get the ball rolling,” said Herb Eysser, who works with the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and was a dispatcher with FDNY for many years.

“I used to ask for the address at least three times to make sure it was correct,” he said. “When you are dealing with excited people, it’s easy for them to give you wrong information.”

Firefighters said that during the May 1 incident they had to resort to asking bystanders for the whereabouts of the burning vehicle after wrong information was transmitted to them.

Luckily, Derrick S. Bennet, 45, a senior sales representative at Riverdale Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership on Broadway, was able to warn Mr. Echeviarri that his car was burning before it was too late.

“Thank god there was nobody trapped in the car,” he said.

Despite complaints about the new system from fire unions, FDNY Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano defended the UCT system in testimony before a joint session of the City Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Services, Public Safety and Technology and Government committees on Dec. 15. He said that the new process reduces the time it takes to initiate a response. Former Deputy Mayor for Operations Ed Skyler has publicly said that despite complaints there is only a 1 percent margin of error.

Unions, however, claim the number of errors from calls transmitted through the UCT system is as high as 4,000 out of 150,000 calls, or 3.75 percent. “It is a problem, and they just cover it up. The present fire commissioner says it works,” said Mr. Eysser. “But when you’re in a rush, you make mistakes.”