Dispatch Center Is OK, Thanks to Y2K

The Orange County Fire Authority dispatch center lost all power, including phone service, for about an hour and 10 minutes Sunday and the center’s emergency backup system also failed, officials said.

But Y2K disaster-ready workers were quickly able to get back to answering 911 calls when things went black about 11:30 a.m. They had practiced for just such a scenario shortly before the New Year.

“We went into what we call a manual mode,” Fire Authority spokesman Capt. Paul Hunter said.

Hunter said it took less than two minutes to have the contingency plan in place. Dispatchers quickly strung a phone line from an outside telephone pole through a doorway and down the hall to where colleagues were working by flashlight.

Orange County’s main dispatch center was alerted to the situation and sent 911 calls through the outside phone lines. Orange County Fire Authority dispatchers used hand-held radios to give instructions to local fire stations and paramedic units.

The outage occurred as repair work was being done on the building’s air-conditioning unit. Hunter said officials are investigating the failure of the backup power generator, which he said had been tested prior to Jan. 1 and passed Y2K inspections.

Hunter said he knew of no problems in routing emergency help during the blackout.