Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Man Burns As E-911 Call is Mis-Routed By Nextel, Sheriff Say's "It's happened with Nextel in the past."

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 06:39:54 -0400

WTEN-TV
341 NORTHERN BLVD
ALBANY, NY 12204

Man Burns As E-911 Call is Mis-Routed By Nextel
Fulton County Man dials 911 to Help Neighbor, Call Ends Up in Plattsburgh

Websites mentioned on NEWS10

It has been drilled into our heads dial 911 for emergencies. 

And what was happening right before Ben Sturgess eyes was a full blown emergency - a neighbor on fire - and all Ben had to do was dial 911 on his cell phone, or so he had been lead to believe.
Ben Sturgess remembers the moment clearly, 

"I heard a gentleman screaming at the top of his lungs..Please help me! please help me! His elbows were bleeding, he had no eyebrows, his hair was burned 3/4 of the way back on his head and his legs were burnt."
Spray paint fumes caught fire then exploded. 

Ben Sturgess' neighbor was still on fire when he ran into the street. Ben grabbed his Nextel phone and dialed 911.
"The operator answered '911 what is your emergency?' 

I told them I needed an ambulance at 391 Bogden Rd. The operator sounded confused. She asked me, 'what was the name of the road again?' I said Bogden, she said 'can you spell it?" Ben recalled.
Meanwhile the clock is ticking and the operator is no closer to sending help.  "What town are you in...? Broadalbin. What county? Fulton. Well you called Plattsburgh." says Ben.
Meanwhile his neighbor kept pleading for help. 

Ben says he was screaming and moaning. Finally a neighbor with a land-line dialed 911 and got the Fulton county Sheriff. So did Ben make a mistake? He says no, "I didn't make a mistake, I dialed 911, that's what you're told to do.
And that's what it says in Nextel's own handbook, "to place a call in an emergency press 911, you will be connected with the nearest emergency dispatch center.
Fulton county Sheriff Tom Lorey says, 

"Nextel has a tower that guy's phone should have hit" And wound up here in the Fulton county dispatch center. Sheriff Tom Lorey says even with Nextel's tower in plain view of his headquarters this is not the first time there's been a problem, "It's happened with Nextel in the past. We made an effort to contact their engineers after we heard from you and they said somehow their towers are configured improperly." Sheriff Lorey thinks this is life threatening.

As for Nextel, even with local headquarters right here in Albany county, they refused to go on camera. Instead they sent us a reply. It says Ben's 911 call actually hit a tower in Saratoga county...which may have sent the call to Williston, Vermont. Ben Sturgess tells a different story, "actually I called Nextel and the conversation was 10 minutes long with Plattsburgh."
Regardless of whether the call went to Plattsburgh or Vermont, it's still a long way away. Meanwhile Sheriff Lorey has some good advice: program the number of your local sheriff into your cell phone. Ben Sturgess says he'll never forget the Fulton County Sheriff's department number again.
Now here's the difficulty when it comes to wireless phones, they are actually a radio with a transmitter, with no fixed location or address. They are presenting a real challenge when it comes to 911 emergency calls because a caller using a wireless phone can be calling from anywhere. Meanwhile Ben Sturgess has filed a complaint with the FCC concerning Nextel, and we have requested a copy of the 911 call that Ben Sturgess made from the state police.

http://www.abc10.com/Global/story.asp?S=1467365

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