A fire that probably started from an electrical short has destroyed the home of Doraville (Geo.) police dispatcher Lisa Guardardo while she was on-duty, leaving her husband and two children in the front yard in their underwear. Guardardo’s husband discovered the fire and called the comm center, but Lisa believed he was calling just to chat, quickly told him she was busy and hung up. His next call was more excited, and when firefighters arrived, the house was totally engulfed by flames. Guardardo waited for relief before leaving the comm center, and later insisted on taking just two hours off for her next shift. However, a police captain told her to take some days off to recover from the disaster. Read more about the fire here.

A Glendale (Ariz.) dispatcher who answered a 911 call from a man who said he had just stabbed his family of three to death told the man, “I’m hoping that you’re just dreaming this.” Michael Miller allegedly arrived home from work late at night, got into an argument with his wife, and then stabbed her, his 10 year-old daughter and 4 year-old son. He then dialed 911 to admit what he had done. He later told police that he is bi-polar and schizophrenic. His son is in stable but serious condition, but his wife and daughter did not survive. Listen (mp3) to the 911 call here.

A federal government agency’s on-line map of the nation’s railroad network provides plenty of resources for dispatchers who deal with train incidents. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) collects information about the location of tracks and crossings, and also documents collisions with vehicles to help promote safety. But the agency’s ESRI-based on-line maps also provide comprehensive mapping resources, such as latitude and longitude, jurisdiction, track ownership, rail stations and other geographic features. Specifically, track crossings are identified on the map by number and milepost. Surf the map index to begin your search. You can also search for crossing accident reports here.

The usefulness of Google Maps increased just a bit more with the addition of a “What’s here?” feature that attempts to specifically identify the point on the map you’re examining. The feature begins by right-clicking (control-click for the Mac) on any location, and then selecting from the drop-down menu “What’s new?” First, Google Maps will try to find any placenames, photos or user-supplied information about the spot. Depending upon the level of magnification, the search results displayed in the left column may include the block range or a specific address. Either way, the point’s latitude and longitude will be displayed in the search box for reference. Right now, the ability of Google Maps to identify obvious placenames–even ones listed on the maps themselves–is limited. It would be useful in quickly determining a latitude and longitude for an incident, especially for requesting air support. This feature is expected to be enhanced over the coming months.

The Pima County (Ariz.) sheriff’s comm center has released 911 logging tapes of a call made by a woman whose husband and young daughter were shot and killed by two intruders. Deputies say the suspects had targeted the home for money to finance their anti-immigration activities. The suspects shot the woman’s husband and 9 year-old daughter, and the woman then armed herself with a handgun and shot one of the suspects before locking herself in a room to dial 911. On the recording, there is the sound of yelling and gunfire, and at one point the woman asked the dispatcher if she could be in legal trouble for shooting the suspect.Read more and listen to the 911 call here.

The Santa Fe County (NM) regional comm center has released 911 logging tapes of call made by a lost hiker in the mountains of the Pecos National Wilderness last week, revealing that it took 50 minutes for dispatchers to handle the calls, locate the caller and transfer the woman to the state police comm center. Eventually a state police helicopter was launched to retrieve the woman at 12,000 ft. on the mountain. But as darkness and clouds moved in on the mountain, the helicopter clipped a tree after take-off and crashed, killing the pilot and the hiker. Another officer on-board survived and hiked out to alert rescuers. The time spent handling the woman’s first 911 calls raises the question if an earlier helicopter response would have avoided the darkness and weather that may have contributed to the accident. Read more here. Update: Santa Fe County sheriff Greg Solano disputed the delay in connecting the hiker to the state police, but did say her several calls kept being cut-off. Solano said he’s investigating why the hiker’s calls kept coming in on an administrative line. Listen to some of the logging tapes and read more here.

A Morristown (NJ) police officer on patrol found the body of a veteran city police dispatcher, who apparently died of natural causes. Police have not finished their investigation, but say Michael Kramer, 50, does not appear to be the victim of a crime. He was found about 8:14 p.m. Sunday near a parking structure construction site.

Just weeks after the family of Florida murder victim Denise Lee went national with their goal for standardized dispatcher training, the family of a Colin County (Tex.) accident victim says they’ve teamed up with the Lee’s to pursue the same objective. Michael Cantrell’s one year-old son died in 2007 when he became entangled in a backyard soccer net, and strangled. The family has sued the county and the city of Murphy Police Dept. because they failed to provide any emergency medical instructions that they say might have saved the boy. The family also claims arriving officers didn’t attempt to revive the boy, but simply taped off the house as a crime scene. Now the Cantrell family will join with the Lees to press for a single national training standard for dispatchers. Read more here.

A suspected natural gas explosion at a Garner (NC) food processing plant blew out walls and the roof of the facility, killing persons and injuring many of the 300 employees. Several plant workers dialed 911 right after the explosion at the ConAgra Foods plant to say there were burn victims, fires and people trapped under debris. Pipes carrying water and ammonia were ruptured, adding to the danger and chaos at the scene. Listen (mp3) to some of the 911 calls here, and read more about the incident here.

The husband of a New Mexico State Police comm center supervisor was killed in a helicopter crash near Santa Fe during the evacuation of a lost hiker. Sgt. Andy Tingwell, 36, was piloting the aircraft at about 9 p.m. after he and Off. Wesley Cox had landed at 12,000 ft. near Mt. Baldy, and carried the exhausted hiker to the chopper. Officials said it was clear weather during the take-off, but clouds cropped up shortly after, and the helicopter struck a tree on the mountainside. Off. Cox survived and was able to hike out the next morning, and rescuers later found Tingwell and the hiker dead. Tingwell’s wife Leann is a comm center supervisor for the state police, a reportedly was on-duty when the incident occurred. They have two children, 10 and 2 years-old. Read more here.

Budget cuts have forced the Marion County (Ohio) sheriff to lay off all six of the comm center dispatchers, replacing them with deputies. Sheriff Tim Bailey told a reporter, “I don’t see a loss in service or the quality of service. If somebody calls with an emergency, we will answer it and someone will be there.” County commissioners asked department heads to cut 6% from their budgets to make up a $2.6 million deficit. Bailey said he trimmed $80,000 from fuel and training, but needed another $92,050 in savings, which he obtained from the dispatcher cuts. The lay-offs are effective July 1st.

Tillamook County (Ore.) public safety dispatcher Suzanne Jones awoke on her couch about midnight when a man who invaded her home began beating with a blunt object. Jones was suffered head and other injuries, but will recover. She told Tillamook police that she had arrived home after work, sat down in the couch and dozed off. Police have no motive, and say the suspect ran off after Jones began resisting and screaming. Read more about the attack here.

The in-coming president of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) says he supports a national program of certification for public safety dispatchers, just a week after the family of a Florida murder victim refocused their training reform efforts from Florida to nationwide. NENA president Craig Whittington made the remarks to a reporter after the keynote address at association’s annual conference in Forth Worth (Tex.), saying that tanning booth operators must be certified, “but for 911–the most critical link in emergency response–there is no certification.” His goal seems to coincide with the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, named for the woman who was kidnapped and murdered in Florida in Jan. 2008. Several mistakes in communications led to missed opportunities for police to apprehend the suspect, and possibly save Lee’s life. The family launched an effort last year to bring mandatory training to Florida, but legislators passed only a voluntary, unfunded certification program. Starting June 1st, the foundation’s goal has been broadened to a national dispatcher training requirement, according to the group’s Web site. As many as 36 states have some type of training regulations, although like Florida, not all are funded or mandatory. read more

Three police officers in Lyons (Kan.) have resigned and the town has received several citizen complaints after the town council voted to stop having Rice County handle non-emergency telephone calls, and instead have officers handle them from their car using cellular phones. The town made the switch to the county to save money, and now has county dispatchers handle only 911 calls, and transfer non-emergencies to voicemail and notify officers via mobile laptops. The officers said they quit over safety issues now that most dispatching is performed using mobile laptops rather than voice. “They took away an essential part of our tool of being dispatched and want us to do it by cell phone,” said former officer Cody Luck. Several citizens said they dialed 911, but a response was delayed or the dispatcher transferred the caller to an answering machine. Read more about the dispatching set-up here, and another view of the situation here.

Over two years ago, Apple Inc. was thinking about the future of its iPhone, and how it might enhance the handset’s features to provide better emergency calling features, according to a patent just released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. According to the document filed in Dec. 2007, the iPhone’s features may require additional power by sensors, input/output connections, wireless transceivers and any running software applications. This additional power consumption, “may prevent the user from using one or more features of the mobile phone” when making an emergency call, including just staying connected. Apple’s engineers proposed disabling hardware components or software, reducing power to the display screen and reducing the processor speed to maintain battery life and, therefore, the call duration. The handset might also be able to send canned messages, in case the 911 caller cannot speak for some reason. Download (pdf) the full patent with diagrams here.