WASHINGTON — One man who lives in Southeast D.C. says the damage done to his apartment after a fire on Sunday afternoon could've been mitigated had firefighters been sent to the correct address.
The man didn't want to be interviewed on camera, but he says a fire started in a bedroom near a bed frame. He took the sheets into the shower and tried to put the rest of it out himself. When he realized he couldn't, he knew he had to get his girlfriend, four children and two dogs to safety.
"I ran and got the kids out of the house, got the dogs out of the cage," he explained, "We all ran downstairs."
He says he then knocked on all of his neighbors doors in the small apartment building and frantically called 911.
"We waited for maybe it was like 10 minutes? No one showed up," he said.
He says he and his neighbor called 911 several times and then found out that firefighters were sent to the wrong address.
"They said they were going to Northwest and that's when we got frustrated," he said. "We told them – no it’s Southeast, Southeast, not Northwest."
According to dispatch audio, firefighters went to 1704 R Street NW, when the correct of the address of the building on fire is 1704 R Street SE.
Thankfully, the man told WUSA9 that the sprinklers came on in the building and firefighters did show up. But he says the damage could've been mitigated.
"If they would've came earlier and came to the right address, I believe it wouldn't have gotten this bad," he said.
Thankfully, everyone was safe, but the man told WUSA9 there is a lot of water damage throughout the building, and no one could stay in the building on Sunday night.
Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau is no stranger to these issues with DC's Office of Unified Communications. In December, she authored a bill that calls on the failures of the office and says problems like this need to be solved right now.
"When you call 911, you want someone to pick up and you want someone to pick up quickly and you want to know the people who picked up are trained and are going to get you the services you need and that is not happening," she explained. "That did not happen with this fire."
Councilmember Nadeau is calling on DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to take make changes immediately because she says in the last 10 days, she's gotten six e-mails from her constituents about problems they've had with 911.
"The system is clearly not working. The mayor needs to fix it but in the meantime, we need immediate fixes urgently," she said. "This is something everybody in the executive branch should be focused on everyday when they wake up. Period."
WUSA9 reached out to OUC. In a statement, Director Heather McGaffin said, "This weekend, the caller did not initially identify a quadrant and Fire and EMS was dispatched to two quadrants. OUC is committed to being transparent about how we critically evaluate performance to understand root causes, integrate best practices, and quickly implement changes to ensure accuracy of dispatch."
In the meantime, the residents who live at 1704 R Street, SE say they're working with the American Red Cross to find temporary housing situations.