911 Outage Can Never Happen Again: County Council

ROCKVILLE, MD — Never again can Montgomery County residents dial 911 and fail to receive an answer, county council members emphasized Tuesday.

Two people died during a two-hour span when the county’s 911 system was down last month. Montgomery County Police say the outage lasted from 11:10 p.m. on July 9 to 1:09 a.m. on July 10 after an air conditioning unit failed and the system shut down to prevent overheating.

While an investigation into the outage and what impact it may have had on the county’s response times -- and to the two deaths -- as ordered by County Executive Ike Leggett is under way, council members quizzed officials responsible for the 911 system about the mishap.

“The loss of 911 service can never happen again,” said Councilman Roger Berliner at Tuesday’s work session.

He also expressed concern about how long it took before the public was notified by social media and the Alert Montgomery warning system to share alternative ways to call for help.

Family members of a Rockville man with breathing problems say they dialed 911 for an hour without success before calling the local fire station to seek help for their struggling father. Marlon Somarriba, 40, from Rockville, died July 10 at his home.

A 91-year-old Olney woman also died during the emergency system outage.

Call center officials estimate up to 100 people might have tried to call 911 during the outage.

“I have to confess that I have one recurring nightmare, and this is the one: It’s when I’m trying to call 911 and I can’t get through,” said county council member Nancy Navarro, reports WTOP.

Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger noted it’s not uncommon for the system’s 36 911 lines to be busy and give callers a busy signal. He said residents should have the numbers of their local police and fire stations nearby so they can call directly during a busy period.

Council members weren’t satisfied with that answer.

“To just simply tell people to have this other number — that’s not going to work,” said council member Craig Rice in the WTOP story. “We train people to get out of the house as quickly as possible — not to go look at a refrigerator and call a back up number.”

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During an emergency, the public should call 911 for an emergency response from police, fire and emergency medical services. If a caller hears a busy signal or is unable to get through on 911, the caller should contact 311 or the closest local fire station or police district station.

What to Do if 911 Gives Busy Signal

In an emergency, any caller who hears a busy signal or is unable to reach a 911 operator, should call 3-1-1 or 240-777-0311. Police officers and fire and rescue personnel are on duty at the MC311 call center to assist with any emergency calls.

Police District Stations

• Rockville Station 240-773-6070
• Bethesda Station 240-773-670
• Silver Spring 240-773-6800
• Wheaton 240-773-5500
• Germantown 240-773-6200
• Gaithersburg 240-773-5700

Anyone uncertain as to which police district serves a particular community should see:http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/pol/districts/whatsmydistrict.html

Fire station addresses and phone numbers can be found online.

Public safety officials have since urged residents and business owners to determine which Fire Rescue and Police locations are closest to them and not wait until there is an emergency.