Dust or Contractor Shuts Off Power

York County (Penn.) opened a new $68 million comm center in early December, and on Jan. 3rd suffered its first power outage. Officials said the power failed for almost an hour about 8:30 a.m., causing at least four 911 calls to be missed. Emergency Services executive director Eric Bistline said power was out for about 20 minutes, and it took another 35 minutes to restore all computer, radio and phone operations. And the cause? In a statement, officials said that either, “A contractor inadvertently bumping into an emergency shutoff switch mounted on an interior wall, or (it was) caused by dust that may have triggered detectors in the subfloor.” Bistline said dispatchers moved to a back-up site and notified media to have residents dial a toll-free number to report emergencies, which were then handled by adjacent Lancaster County dispatchers. He said plastic guards would be installed over the emergency cut-off switches to prevent any future shut-downs.