Here is a Buffalo News article about how long it took for the Cheektowaga Police to be dispatched to an unknown call for help just for them to realized that it was a house fire with people trapped. It shows how Erie County and it's old, antiquated system hasn't kept up with the times. With the overabundant use of cell phones in everyday life, this type of tragedy will be replayed over and over again if something isn't done.
No "human error" was involved in the delay but since it was a 911 cell phone call, it was automatically sent to CPS. They then transferred the info to Depew (which does have part of that road) but Depew PD realized that it was Cheektowaga's area and sent it to them. That was an approximately 15 minute delay before anyone was dispatched and arrived. If you had one regionalized police and fire department (full-time, 24/7) with one communication center, this delay would not have happened. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and to all the emergency responders (Police officers, firefighters, Rural/Metro crews, and dispatchers) who worked feverishly to save these three lives.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/903742.html

What do you all think of this situation and your feelings of regionalization of emergency services in Erie Co.

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Totally agree. It's a messed up system, perpetuated because every municipality has to have their own government structure. 10 years ago, we had two radios in each ambulance, each programmed with 15 different frequencies to talk to all the dispatching agencies. It was, and still is, a public safely hazard, exacerbated by the explosion of cell phones and terrible 911 technology surrounding them.

Niagara County has moved in the right direction over the last few years, consolidating dispatches into the single county dispatch center. Granted, most of those moves have happened were for budgetary/cost savings reasons, but the result is still positive. With a couple exceptions, everything goes to county dispatch, and just about all responders are sent from there. In a couple areas, county dispatch calls the local dispatch, but it's done over the air so it's much faster than the phone method. Usually units hear county dispatch call the local, and start getting ready to go before the call even comes out.

It's sad that our politicians and folks in charge of this stuff are so dead set on keeping their jobs and piece of the pie that people have to suffer injury and death because of it.

Yet another clear cut example of Erie County being over-governmentalized.

There is no silver lining here, since the three people died.

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mechaphil

I think the worst part is that they noticed it was outside of their area and pushed it to another locality. Why not play it safe and send one until you know one from the other locality has been sent.. Is there rules against going into another locality ???

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I'm not sure about any clear cut rules because those police agencies do work together at times. I think it still comes down to the "piece of the pie" mentality. That wasn't Depew's piece of the pie so they gave it up. I won't blame the individuals involved because it's a system problem, I'm sure they were going by "protocol."

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It's good to see some areas in western ny have come to realize that regionalization is the best way. I still believe a full-time 24 hour paid fire department is needed (with volunteer support).

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For those that have the public interest in mind, regionalization makes sense.

For those that are trying to protect their turf or easy taxpayer funded incomes, regionalization sucks.

EXACTLY!!!!!

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A few months ago in my area, a woman in Vermont called 911 from her cell phone while she was being attacked by an assailant.

Her cell phone call bounced off a tower in Granville, NY and a NYS police officer was dispatched.

Meanwhile, the dispatchers struggled to contact any help in Vermont; not the state police or county police, and they even failed to get ahold of another dispatcher.

The NYS police officer reached the boarder, and came to find out that his mapping system didn't work in Vermont. It was strictly for New York only.

Sure enough, that woman was killed before anyone was able to get there.

On a positive note, less than a month later, all of our systems changed here to accommodate situations like that.

Sad that it takes someone to get hurt to make change like that.

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Wheelhouse

Sadly that does happen with cell phones and I'm not saying that it's a perfect system but This is in the same friggin county and state so there really is no excuse. I would be shocked if anything changes to help try and prevent this from happening again. There are too many people with their hands in the cookie jar to get anyone to agree on a solution.
I was a volunteer firefighter in Lancaster for 10 years in the last 80's and 90's and loved it. I was also a realist and saw how badly broken the system was back them but when I merely mentioned the thought of combining fire companies in Lancaster (let alone Erie Co) I was ostracized.
Even working for Rural/Metro I saw the problems in Erie Co. When a woman went into cardiac arrest somewhere in Hamburg and the fire chief refused to have the paramedic Rural/Metro ambulance respond (who was staging around the corner ) because he wanted his BLS ambulance to transport. That lead to changes and the idea of having a paid paramedic ambulance in the town was accepted. Yes, changes always come from tragedy but tragedy has happened before without change....why would they do it this time

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Wow a 15 minute delay for 911 calls?? Something needs to be done after this tragedy.

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

That's terrible.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

Very tragic. I knew Saaiba Ansari - not very well, but I knew who she was. She was a graduate of my HS and went to UB. From what I hear she was a nice, smart, involved person.

In this day in age, with the instantaneous communication that technology has facilitated, that our inefficient ways of using it can result in such a tragedy.