‘Bizarre’ CAD Recommendations in Fatal Fire

A coroner’s inquest into the death of two Montreal (Canada) college students has included testimony from fire investigators and dispatchers, who have pointed to a faulty fire alarm system at the victims’ apartment, and incorrect unit recommendations generated by computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software as contributing to the deaths. The two women died March 2nd while trying to escape a very smoky fire in a three-story building, whose fire alarm system did not sound, possibly because of an electrical failure. Wrong unit recommendations also delayed the fire response, possibly up to two or three minutes. Last Friday, dispatcher Marlènon-emergency Thibault testified she first typed “21500” at the street address, but then quickly changed it “2500 Van Horne.” She told the coroner that the software then recommended fire units that were nearly 30 minutes from the fire. Thibault said she only looked at the recommendation list, which indicated the units’ estimated response times, not at the unit IDs. “If I’d looked at the number on the truck, I would have known,” they were too far from the fire, she said. A second calltaker fielded a 911 call about the fire, noticed the existing CAD fire incident and realized the responding units were incorrect. Mathieu Laroche said he changed the assigned units when he noticed the error. Dispatch supervisor Michel Asselin also noticed the wrong recommendations, which he described as “bizarre.” Laroche said CAD glitches have occurred when handling previous events. The city installed the Artemis brand CAD software three years ago, supplied by EDS, now a Hewlett-Packard business unit. Read more about the inquest here. and background on the CAD glitch here.