How to file a complaint re: 911 service

Nonsense. Everything can be a legal case. If there was negligence it does not matter what the outcome was. You don’t know if additional damage was done by their delayed response. Like I said, if you are serious about calling attention to this hire an attorney.

and one does that how??

Sorry to hear that, i hope your dad gets better

well I want to listen to the tapes first and find out the exact amount of time, I dont want to look like an ass if my memory isnt 100%, it was a pretty hectic night

Yes, facts would best help if they match your story.

I hope your father is recovering well.

get those records (maby from your local police station or phone company ) and take care of it so it dosent happen again and best of luck to you and your family.

I don’t think you can just request the phone records. Especially, if they’re just for your personal review. You may be able to file a FOIA request for the transcript after a certain period of time.

I’m pretty sure all calls are recorded, remember all 911 calls replayed on the radio and such?
call your phone company and tell them you want 911 call times
also call your local disbatch station and ask for disbatch times after telling them your issue

wow, I can’t honestly say that I would even wait that long. I’d be going insane if that was me.

Hope it all gets worked out.

Oh and just because they are “volunteers” doesn’t mean they should disregard peoples lives. It’s honorable that they volunteer to go to the Station once a week for meetings and beer, but what the fuck does it all mean if they can’t do what they are TRAINED and have obligated themselves to do.

Fuck that. My mom and step-dad were volunteer fire fighters in North Boston and never turned down a call. Even thanksgiving night at 1am for a 1 car collision, they got their asses out of bed and went. (I’m sure some people here might know what incident I am talking about there…)

thats bullshit i understand they need volunteers but they should have at least one crew of people on the payroll to be on call over night when they know people will be sleeping, people dont stop dying overnight. If i were you id definitely want answer and some sort of repercusions for the guy who hung up, its his job to be helping people. at that time in the morning he shouldnt have to much else to do and if he was a decent person should of stayed on the line with you to keep you updated and so he would know imediatly if something goes wrong.

thats the way I look at it, the dude didnt even ask any questions about my dad or nothing…
Then the ambulance somehow ended up at the wrong end of our road about 4 miles away, the dude on the phone never asked for landmarks or anything

theres a few sheriffs that have harassed me over the last few years in this town, if I find out it was one of them playing 911 operator I will have their nuts on a platter…

wow thats bull shit, no matter what excuses you guys or anyone wants to make up thats stupid, an ambulance and 911 are there for that one reason and they couldnt come through glad to see tax dollars are at work. hope your dad gets better man. if that was y dad id drive right down to that station and freak out on those people

Oh yeah if you find out that the long wait was detremental in any way or god forbid if something would of happened while you were waiting nothing would stop me from destroying the lives of everyone involved to the point they destroyed mine. i would poison everyone they loved and volunteer as an emt. when they die slow agonizing deaths i will tell them im on my way then hit the snooze button several times, stop out a timmy hos grab a coffee and maybe a sandwich, then when they call just tell them im on the way and hang up.

wow!

hope ur dad gets better!

wow bro, thats terrible. hope everything turns out ok with your dad!

Volunteers still have to work a shift, I can’t imagine no one was on shift…

<former medic

That’s what I thought - who covers the night watch?!

Really hope your pops is okay, man. That’s some scary shit I hope I never have to go through.

they dont “staff the hall” and sleep there like they did years ago. I could be wrong about North Collins, but 99% of the companies got rid of that and now have that they call Squad Nights. Basically, they divide the roster into 2 or 3 (maybe more) groups, and each group rotates every week, so between the hours of 12am and 6am if your group is up, you have to go and are held responsible for it. So odds are, there was no one there “working” at the time.

To the OP: I’ve never been to North Collins, but judging by where it is, I’m guessing its a pretty rural area. It’s not like all the firemen live around the corner from the fire hall like they do in a more developed area like Amherst or Cheektowaga. So the distance thing alone is going to yield a longer response time. Second, just because people are volunteer fireman and may have blue lights on their personal car does not give them the right to speed, pass, run stop signs, or disobey any other traffic law. The firemen are NOT going go racing down the street and driving like crazy, especially in the middle of the night, to get to the hall. I also thing that N Collins probably has their own ambulance and does their own transports, and there is a possibility that they could have been out on a call earlier and had to transport someone and were responding from outside of the district, which would yield a longer response time as well. If the ambulance was only BLS equipped (no paramedic on board) then there really isnt a whole not they could do for your dad’s breathing anyway. Basic EMTs cant intubate or give drugs. Granted getting him to an ER quicker would have helped. I don;t want to get into politics, but just saying if you were somewhere like Cheektowaga or Amherst or even Buffalo, you probably would be paying higher taxes, but you also have bigger VFDs, more firefighters living closer to the hall to respond, more equipment so that if they were already on another call, they would have another rig to take, and you would have a contracted private ambulance service (such as Rural/Metro or Twin City) that would be responding from in the town somewhere as soon as the call went out. Not trying to be an asshole and I’m sorry this happened and wish your father and family all the best, but a couple factors to take into consideration.

<–firefighter and emt

i know after it you can what if … but why not taking him in a car to the station and or fire hall and say i will meet you there ??

hope everything is ok…

you can req the “run report” from you ins company and look at the times also to see if it matches up

edit: with responce to mikeR’s post

i live in east otto very small and closest hospital is hour drive (45 flight)… and all of the Volunteers will show up without a truck or flycar just b/c they have to b/c there is never time to go back and get a truck… this area where it happened should have also done the same thing b/c of the area they should all have a emt “bag” in there car and be able to go direct to the call

well a few good points but let me respond, North Collins is very small geographically, everything is 10 mins or less away, we have one red light and next to no traffic at 4am, not to mention our neighbor 2 doors away is an EMT…
The town does own its own ambulance and from what the 911 operator told me they were not on a call it was a matter of people not wanting to get up…
As far as the property taxes we pay over 5k a year for a 3000sq ft house with 2.5 acres so I would think that should entitle you to a little better service, not to mention they go door to door soliciting twice a year , we always donated in the past but I have a feeling thats about to change…

As far as throwing my dad in a car it simply wasnt going to happen, he suffered a stroke about 25yrs ago and after spending 2+ months in the hospital this spring his hemi-parysis increased and he was non ambulatory…

He had PT and OT coming to the house twice a week and they had planned on getting him walking again soon

But like I said he was non ambulatory and despite the fact he has a wheel chair we have no ramp and had actually commissioned someone to build one so with the circumstances it was too much for me and my mom to safely get him up and get him out of the house and into a car especially in a hurry and in the distress he was in…

He is stable right now but I really have no further info, its a wait and see approach by the hospital, I intend on going down and seeing him this afternoon

Thanks again everyone for the thoughts and well wishes and I will keep updating this thread as I find out more