Connect CTY System Fire Call Error

[somerville311.livejournal.com]

Please note that the Connect CTY fire alarm call that went out this morning at approximately 3:45 a.m. was designed to provide a standard notification to the City's emergency responders ONLY.  Through human error, the call was mistakenly sent to the entire city.

The City of Somerville and its Fire Department sincerely apologize for this error, which will not recur.

We hope that, despite this error, you will continue to remain on the Connect CTY distribution list for urgent messages about snow emergencies and other time-sensitive topics directly relevant to you and your neighborhood.

If, however, you choose to remove your contact information from our database, you may do so by calling 311 from any phone in Somerville during normal business hours (617-666-3311 from outside the city) and we will promptly delete your household from the system.

For those of you who may be curious about the actual incident, please note that this was a three-alarm blaze that appears to have started in a storage shed/garage between two residential structures on Walnut Street (Numbers 79 and 81). 81 Walnut appears to have been unoccupied while restoration and construction work was under way.   Six people were made homeless by the damage to the multi-dwelling building at 79 Walnut.  The fire was brought under control quickly and is under standard investigation.
 
Per standard protocol, the Red Cross has been called to the scene to assist the victims with shelter and other support.  No injuries to residents or to firefighters were reported. 

Once again, please allow 311 to offer a sincere apology on behalf of the City and its Fire Department to all those who recceived this call..

Comments

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wouldn't mind getting calls like these if they were limited to my ward. A fire like that down the street I'd like to know about. A fire like that on the other side of the city, I can wait till 8 the next morning.

How about another call?

[bryelejr.livejournal.com]

Since you woke everyone up in the city with the first call, would a second one five minutes later apologizing for the inconvenience be totally out of character?

As you can tell from the board, a lot of people woke up and didn't feel comfortable going back to sleep until they knew what had happened. I, for one, am thankful for this community being here and the knowledgeable people who were able to quickly let us know what happened. But for the city to wake us all up with that call and worry people that there might be a fire emergency in their neighborhood -- and then not to let us know what happened and that the call was for emergency personnel and here's where the fire is -- is just unacceptable.

OMG

[otakusoprano.livejournal.com]

This fire woke me up. I live about 3 houses down and it was so scary!!! :( I'm glad no one was hurt. I couldn't go back to sleep until it was out.

Of course...I was awakened by sirens - not a phone call.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I was up for a bit afterwards talking to folks on the phone telling them, no the fire is not in our neighborhood, yes, it's way down by the high school.

[ron_newman]

I was just getting off the phone with the Mayor's office when you posted this. Some of you may have briefly seen my post about that, which I deleted as soon as I saw this post.

Re: How about another call?

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I went back to bed pretty quickly after determining that I couldn't hear any sirens. Another call would have been worse.

Re: How about another call?

[somerville311.livejournal.com]

The extent of the fire department's error was not known for some time after the initial call.

By the time it was clear that the entire city had been called, too much time had elapsed for a follow-up call at, say, 5:30 this morning.

Re: How about another call?

[bryelejr.livejournal.com]

For those people in apartment buildings, another call really is necessary. Sure, there's not a fire in your room, but what about another floor? Or at least send an e-mail to those on the e-mail list... that could have cleared things up and not disrupted those who went back to bed.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I agree that a phone call to folk in the ward of the fire might be helpful, and a follow-up email to the email list or to some newly created email list that folk could check for peace of mind could be helpful.

It is triggering to get such a phone call unnecessarily and this is a decent place to vent...but we *all* make mistakes; the trick is to try to not make them again, and it appears you have that intention.

Kudos to all of the people who helped to deal with this emergency situation.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've actually been to that house.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

Am I correct that the city pays for the number of calls that went out? If so, how much did this cost us?

[shirt-seeker.livejournal.com]

I walked outside to check, but there was actually nothing to see, so I went back to bed again. No biggy...

I was wondering what that was last night!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I thought perhaps it was a prank call...

[aimeedonofrio.livejournal.com]

How about at least a follow up email?

Luckily for me my phone was on vibrate and in the other room so I wasn't disturbed in real time, but I was certainly curious at 7:30 this morning and asked one of the officers outside of my polling place, 'What was the robo-call about on the multi alarm fire this morning? And where was it?' All he could tell was that he had been working since 6a getting ready for the election and that senior citizens were upset about the call. Given that this was completely useless information, I then called 311 and was told it was a 'mistake'. Then I got to work and logged in to LJ and now I finally have all the information.

What would have been nicer is if I had gotten the info in this post via a direct email, I got the original robo-email so it seems like a natural, non-intrusive way to follow up.

Re: How about another call?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Surely people in apartment buildings could, you know, look out the window. And see that there are no fire trucks or other emergency vehicles in the vicinity. And surmise from that, that their particular building is not on fire at this time.

Re: How about another call?

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

It would have been a third call for me, as I got one wake up call at 3:45 with no message, then a second one at 4am.

I would however had appreciated a email telling me it was fine, but not another phone call.

People keep saying there was only one call, not sure why I got two.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

The city has offered restitution for those affected. They have made arrangements for any one affected to get a special pass/card which can be used at all branches of the somerville library. With this card you can check out not only books, but dvds and books on tape, FOR FREE. You just need to sign up.

check the city website.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

going to the city website (http://www.somervillema.gov/) was the first thing i did this morning (in order to figure out what the hell i was supposed to do about the fire message on my machine & who to call!) where very clearly posted in the alert box was a link to the same message posted here. that seemed a perfectly fine way to address the issue imho.

Re: check the city website.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

You, per usual, rock.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

FTW!

[somerville311.livejournal.com]

The city pays a flat annual fee for the Connect CTY system.

The price paid for this call was steep, but it was paid in resident aggravation and inconvenience, not dollars and cents.

Once again, please accept the apology of the City and its Fire Department for this unfortunate error.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

What was that number anyway that the people who got the message were asked to call? Taking down numbers at 3:45 am is beyond my powers.

That's another problem with the message going out to everybody; the city employees who were supposed to call in probably couldn't get through. ( Was it intended for all city employees, even teachers, or was it just for public safety and public works? )

My 80 yr old great-aunt called the number and got a busy signal. I don't see her going out to fight a fire.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Serious?

I'd rather have a free "park wherever the heck you want" day.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

Good suggestion. I called them and asked if they would do that for you and they can't. HOWEVER, they did say you can ignore permit parking on any Sunday for the rest of the year!!! If you act now, you can also ignore any meter after 8pm. This mistake is really paying off!

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

So, are you also kidding about the library? Seems odd that the library would jump into action just hours after the call.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

Bahhh! I hate explaining jokes.

If you read what I wrote, I basically said that if you go to the library they will give you a card that lets you take out books and dvds for free.


Which is what a library card is.

I'll chalk this bad joke up to my lack of sleep, as well as your not getting the joke.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

it was the fire department's main, non-emergency number.

Re: How about another call?

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

I got two calls too. When the first one came in, I figured it was a wrong number and went back to sleep. But when the second one came, I figured a relative must have died, so I got up to figure out what was going on.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

When the phone rang at 4 in the morning, I was convinced it was that some family member had died.

Ugh, headache from lack of sleep.

[ron_newman]

Thanks for posting the apology promptly. Looks like you told us even before putting it up on the city website. I'm glad that this incident didn't cost the city government money.

[ron_newman]

When I tried to return the call to the number that showed up on my caller ID (I think it was 617-628-7669), the recorded Tom Champion message there was from October and about something entirely unrelated.

Re: check the city website.

[ron_newman]

Hmm, I don't think that was there when I first looked this morning.

Re: check the city website.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

that's ok, your first thing in the morning was probably way earlier than my first thing. ;p

full disclosure: i woke up at late & noticed the message on my machine after that. it's highly possible that the city had JUST updated their site when i went looking for a number to call.

[turil.livejournal.com]

It won't occur again?

How do you know? Does the city employ psychics? :-)

If it does happen again (Murphy's Law and such being kind of a reality), what will happen? Will Somerville explode in a puff of paradox?

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

not an entirely failed joke, I was amused. ;)
(I even giggled a bit. out loud!)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Hey, I thought it was pretty funny.

[goodkittieavril.livejournal.com]

Yeah, WTF??? LOL

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

This all jibes with an earlier post;
http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1520578.html

Looks like the caller ID was the robo-call number, but the number to call back was 617-623-1700, the fire department's business line.

I shudder to think how many calls went to that number.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I thought it was going to be some fool telling me my car's warranty was about to expire.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Groan. I usually go to the Arlington library, where most of the DVDs are $1 rentals. I assumed Somerville did the same.