WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — It’s been one week since devastating flash floods overtook a doggy daycare in D.C.
10 pets drowned when the water rushed into the District Dogs facility on Rhode Island Ave. in Northeast Washington on Monday, Aug. 14.
On Aug. 21, officials clarified information regarding the timeline and detailed miscommunication about the severity of the flooding, which was first classified as a water leak by a 911 dispatcher.
Acting Director of the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) Heather McGaffin admitted the dispatcher misspoke during a closed-door briefing with reporters.
McGaffin admitted that no one recognized assistance was needed when the first 911 call came in at 5:06 p.m. last Monday.
The first caller was transferred to D.C. 911 after calling from Montgomery County. According to a transcript of the call, the caller was a District Dogs manager who was watching the flooding on a webcam. The manager told 911, “The whole building is going underwater right now. Water was coming out through the walls and we saw the walls break down through the cameras.”
Despite that description taken by a call taker, a dispatcher told first responders it was a water leak.
At 5:09 p.m. the assistant manager of District Dogs called 911 from Prince George’s County and was also transferred to D.C. 911. She told the call taker, “The whole place it looks like a swimming pool right now.
At 5:13 p.m. a dispatcher radioed to firefighters, “We have a call, channel 1, place Tower 3 on in reference to 680 Rhode Island Avenue Northeast for a water leak.”
A firefighter then responded, “The access to those buildings are all completely flooded right now. You’re going to have to hold that call for a little while to get these rescues resolved.”
It wasn’t until a third call came in at 5:18 p.m. from someone inside District Dogs who said, “We are trapped in water that is above our heads” that crews were dispatched for a water rescue.
“Command copy. We’ll deploy units as needed,” a firefighter said at 5:22 p.m.
That transmission came 16 minutes after the first 911 call reporting that the wall broke down.
According to the call log. Fire and EMS confirmed they entered the building and began rescuing people and dogs at 5:29 p.m.
McGaffin said there wasn’t a specific dispatch code for people trapped in a flooding building. There was an acknowledgment that, although notes were being put into the CAD system, they were not being properly communicated over the radio to firefighters.
“Strengthening our commitment to relaying that information verbally over the radio is something that we will be doing in the future,” McGaffin said.
Fire Chief John Donnelly agreed that fire and EMS crews need more verbal communication, adding, “Our team is thinking about the future is how do we get more rapidly on the scene, do an assessment and identify the hazards.”
As for the dispatcher who made the water leak call, “This was a performance issue. We are addressing that,” McGaffin said.
She refused to say if or how the dispatcher was being disciplined but did say the dispatcher is still taking calls.
McGaffin said for now, any flooding with people trapped will be classified as a building collapse and will work with Donnelly on better ways to communicate the urgency of calls.
“We will be making procedural policy and operational changes,” McGaffin said.
McGaffin said a contributing factor to these cases of miscommunication is staffing.
McGaffin said when she started in February there were 36 open call-taking positions. Since then, 11 people are now taking calls, 10 are in class and 15 start their first day on September 11.
If everyone sticks with the job, she said there would be no more shortages of call takers.
OUC still has nine vacancies for dispatcher positions.
And she said they’ve hired enough people that soon there should be no vacancies for call takers.
“I’ve put in a proposal to take five of those positions and make them ten part-time positions to help stop the bleed,” McGaffin said.
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