A recent report looked at Midwest City (OK) firefighters’ concerns over an increase in third-party 911 calls.
The report from KFOR noted that some residents are calling other people during emergencies; these callers, in turn, alert the fire department, but they frequently don’t have all the information that can help firefighters identify threats and formulate their strategy.
In one case, eight children at a home that was on fire called their mother first rather than calling 911.
“Obviously, seconds count and time matters for us to get there to have the best possible outcome if someone is trapped in there, but our dispatchers are trained,” Fire Chief Bert Norton told KFOR. “They ask a lot of questions—the information that they relay to us. When it’s a third party, they really don’t know.”
