PORT HADLOCK — A temporary communication glitch early Thursday did not interfere with the response time or number of firefighters dispatched to a Port Ludlow condominium fire, a county official said later in the day.
Jefferson Communications 9-1-1 director Tracy Stringer, at a news conference called Thursday afternoon, said a communications officer handling the fire call shortly after 4 a.m. realized that emergency crews could not hear her radioed directions from the new communications facility which dispatchers finished moving into the day before.
To overcome the problem, the dispatcher used a law enforcement radio.
The new dispatch center shares a building with Jefferson County Jail, across the parking lot from Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Port Hadlock.
Under investigation
Stringer could not say whether equipment malfunction caused the problem, but the glitch is under investigation.
“We are taking measures to make sure that it does not happen again,” the Jeffcom director said.
“We are reviewing our tapes of the many calls to 9-1-1 in this incident, and we have found that all the calls were answered in order received.”
The dispatcher was able to fully communicate with emergency response teams within 10 minutes after the initial 9-1-1 call, Stringer said.
The news conference was called after questions were raised whether the communications problem affected the efficiency of firefighters responding to the fire in Port Ludlow that destroyed a condominium fourplex and heavily damaged another.
The first fire unit was on the scene within eight minutes after the first 9-1-1 call, and firefighters there updated dispatchers, who had already sent out a call for assistance from other fire districts, according to Stringer’s written statement.
