Chair Ariola opens on impact of 911 outage on emergency response
Chair Ariola of the Fire and Emergency Management Committee thanks co-chairs and describes the August outage as highly alarming. She outlines the hearing's focus on how FDNY and EMS dispatch systems were impacted, total number of affected emergencies, and training for personnel to handle disruptions.
Thank you, Chair.
Good morning.
I am Councilmember Joann-Ariola, and I am the Chair to the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management.
I want to thank my fellow colleagues, Chairs Brewer, Felice, and De La Rosa, for co-chairing this hearing today on the city's 911 outage that occurred last month.
I also want to thank representatives of the administration and the public for attending today's hearing, as well as
my fellow colleagues who are here today.
As New Yorkers, we know the operation of emergency response services within a densely populated urban area is extremely challenging, and that it is when all aspects of our 911 system are functional.
As was stated earlier, the August outage of our city's 911 system is highly alarming.
This disruption impacted the safety of New Yorkers not only by limiting the ability to receive emergency calls, but also to respond to these calls.
It is paramount that we, as a city, provide life-saving responses to fire and medical emergencies and ensure life-saving services are promptly delivered as needed.
During today's hearing, we want to learn about how both FDNY and EMS dispatch systems were impacted during the outage.
What were the total number of fire and medical-related emergencies that were affected by the outage, and did it affect dispatch?
Additionally, the committee will focus on how and what type of training the department provides to both new and experienced personnel to handle such system disruptions.
Our goal is to ensure that the city's response to emergencies is expeditious and avoids any delays in answering and dispatching emergency calls.