Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Home Burns As 911 Call Goes To Wrong State

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:02:41 -0400

CINCINNATI -- Valuable minutes ticked away Tuesday after a cell phone
call to 911 from the owner of a burning home ended up going to another
state.

Ray Powell awoke at about 3:45 a.m. to find his home on River Road
in BooneCounty in flames, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Brian Hamrick
reported.

Powell grabbed his cell phone, leaped out of a window and called 911.

Powell: "My address is 4410 River Road. My house is burning.
911 dispatcher: "4410 River Road. Your house is on fire?"

Powell grabbed a garden hose and tried to knock down the flames himself.
Several minutes later, with no help in sight and the flames raging out
of control, he heard sirens… on the Ohio side of the Ohio River.

Powell:"Yeah, I called 911. My house is on fire."
911 dispatcher:"You already called or you're calling now?"
Powell: "I did. It's 4410 River Road and I can hear them on the Ohio
side. I'm on the Kentucky side."

The problem: There are two River Roads, and even though Powell lives
in Kentucky, his phone call hit a cell tower in Ohio, causing it to go
to Cincinnati's 911 dispatch center.

Powell's frustration reached as high as the flames that just about
destroyed his home.

"When they got here, (the fire) was hitting the top of that tree," said
Powell as he pointed toward the rubble. "The van is gone, too, and
that's all I've got to work in, man."

Police dispatchers are well-aware of the problems associated with
calling for help from cell phones, which are programmed to seek out the
tower with the best signal, not necessarily the closest tower or even a
tower in the same state.

"It is not unusual, and it's a nationwide problem, not just here in the
Tri-State," Mike Fonimos of the Hebron Fire Department said. "It seems
predominant in some areas of Indiana and River Road."

BooneCounty police dispatcher Dave Holten said dispatchers are able to
use GPS technology to track cell signals. However, GPS only gives them
the location of the cell tower, not the location of the caller.

"I'm not sure there's any way to get around it," Holten said. "I think
it's the questions we ask and the information they give that's going to
make sure this doesn't occur."

The cause of the fire is not known.