A North Carolina man who impersonated firefighters on an emergency radio channel and canceled a call to a house where an alarm was ringing now faces a fine of nearly $40,000, the FCC announced Thursday. The Federal Communications Commission recommended a $39,278 penalty to … [Read more...]

Hard lessons from October wildfires a ‘wake-up call’ for Sonoma County It was 11:19 p.m. on Oct. 8, and a panicked caller to Sonoma County’s 911 dispatch center was incredulous the operator wasn’t aware her world had exploded in flames. “What’s on fire?” the 911 … [Read more...]

Aug. 26 -- BARTONVILLE, IL -- There's no guarantee that a different strategy would have resulted in a different outcome — that the victims would be alive today if something as mundane as an administrative spreadsheet had one more agency added. But in each of four fatal fires … [Read more...]

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - An investigation is complete after a group of Seminole County firefighters failed to respond to a house fire call. It happened while the firefighters were displaced into a temporary trailer. The 12-bunk trailer was moved to Fire Station 42 in Geneva due … [Read more...]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Communications were snarled and police, fire and medical responders were overwhelmed by 911 calls, false reports and the number of victims during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, according to a report released Monday by U.S. and local … [Read more...]

BOISE - Fire managers are accustomed to dealing with outside forces creating challenges for firefighters. Usually those outside forces involve weather or difficult terrain. But in recent days, technology-based issues have caused delays for crews working two of Idaho's … [Read more...]

Someone is harassing Mercer County dispatchers and emergency responders with phony reports of shootings, fires and kids in jeopardy, officials reported on Friday. Mercer County Central Communications, which handles 911 calls for local towns, notified county prosecutors that it … [Read more...]

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — A county in South Carolina did not have a plan on how to handle 911 calls after a lightning strike destroyed a router preventing emergency calls from cellphones. The outage for mobile phones in Beaufort County lasted for 16 hours after the … [Read more...]

MISHAWAKA — Brian Kazmierzak’s concerns about New World Systems’ computer-aided dispatch system may have been on the mark. The battalion chief at the Penn Township Fire Department said leaders of the St. Joseph County 911 center should have known they were wading into a mess … [Read more...]

The owner of a brick home at the end of CR 532 sat silently in his truck Tuesday morning looking over the burnt remnants of his house waiting on the fire inspector. “It’s been hard,” said the owner who didn’t want his name publicized. “I talked to the fire chief… This wasn’t … [Read more...]