On January 27, 2008 Brenda Orr dialed 911 from her Doylestown (Penn.) home at 10:54 a.m. to report a fire. The phone rang for 27 seconds before it was answered, and the male dispatcher who eventually picked up the call then quickly asked Orr if she could hold. Orr replied, “911 emergency,” and gave her address. Police officers arrived almost immediately, and firefighters arrived within five minutes. The firefighters were forced out of the house by flames and heat, and then found Orr dead next to her bed when they extinguished the fire. She was an invalid and could not get out of the bed to save herself.
After the answer delay was discovered, there was speculation the delay might have contributed to her death. An investigation into the incident led to the Bucks County 911 center, where officials said on Feb. 13th that 10 dispatchers were on-duty and performing no work tasks when the 911 came in–they had “no reasonable explanation” for not answering the 911 call, officials said. Four supervisors on-duty at the time took no action to correct the situation, county officials said. County director of emergency communications Brent Wiggins told reporters that Orr’s call rang six times, and that her call was put on hold for another 27 seconds by the male dispatcher. Wiggins appeared at a press conference to give a timeline of the events, the findings of the investigation and corrective actions.
Wiggins said the six dispatchers and one supervisor had been disciplined, but declined to specify what action they took. But county commission chair Jim Cawley said, “The vast majority of them had letters put in their files.” Later officials said they suspended the dispatchers without pay from one to five days. Wiggins said dispatchers were now specifically prohibited from putting 911 calls on hold, instead a mere suggestion in the procedure manual.
The dispatchers’ union immediately filed a grievance over the discipline,
However, subsequent investigation determined that eight dispatchers actually were performing duties. However, they disciplined one calltaker for not immediately answering Orr’s 911 call, and also the male dispatcher who did answer the call, saying he should not have answered the call while he was already handling a 911 call, to put the call on hold.
By March 5th the incident took a turn–county officials moved the investigation from Wiggins to the county’s HR and emergency management director to insure independence. They also said that four of the dispatchers initially implicated were actually handling tasks, and so should not have been disciplined.
In the end, six dispatchers were given one day suspensions, and three supervisors were given from two to five days suspension.
On March 6th Wiggins announced he was retiring May 2nd. He gave no reason, but had planned to retire in 2010, officials said.
- Listen (mp3) to Orr’s 911 call here.
- Listen (mp3) to the press conference held by Buck’s County officials after the investigation was complete.
- Statement from Bucks County on the incident