The director of D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications is weighing in on how long it took dispatchers to send firefighters to battle a deadly blaze two weeks ago.
Office of Unified Communications Director Karima Holmes told WTOP she is satisfied with how dispatchers handled the call.
“Overall, my thoughts about it is that there was no delay, no slow response,” Holmes said.
Four minutes one second is how long it took to dispatch firefighters to the scene of the row house fire at 708 Kennedy Street in Northwest D.C. Two victims — a man and a 9-year-old boy — died as a result of the fire. The fire rescue was complicated in part by barred exits and broken smoke detectors. The house had not been licensed for tenants.
The length of response, first reported by Fox 5’s Paul Wagner, was due to information being gathered via police radio instead of a 911 phone call.
The standard across the country is to get first responders out the door in 60 to 90 seconds, Wagner reported.