"911, what is your emergency?"

Those words were asked of me today.

Now first let me say, I'm alright. The situation didn't involve me so much as it involved my frustration.


Please allow me to explain:

This afternoon, I began a drive to Costco. I made such a trip in order to pick up a rad shelf unit for my classroom science materials. As I was making the interchange from the 91W to 710N, I noticed there was a hint of smoke coming from the brush on the side of the freeway. Being a born and raised southern California boy, I know smoke = fire, and fire = a huge possibility of a devastating brush fire. Quickly I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911 to let emergency officals know that there was about a 6 foot wide fire that appeared to just have started alongside the freeway.

You'd think information like that, or any other info to share with a 911 operator might be answered in a timely manner. Apparently, my definition of "timely" is a little different than 911's.

I waited 3 minutes. Yes, 3 minutes... 180 seconds... 1/20th of an hour. I drove waiting, listening to a recorded message of "currently busy operators," while my heart raced with frustration towards the ringing and ringing.

Goodness gracious... 3 minutes... does this upset anyone else? What if I was with someone who was having a heart attack? What if I was reporting someone with a gun on my school's campus?

How in the world is waiting 3 minutes to report an emergency in ANY way acceptable for 2007?

I ask that if this upsets you, as I pray it does, please take the time to locate the 7 digit emergency number for your area. With cell phone technology, there are still hickups, and it appears that this is one of them: No matter where you are in California, if you're dialing 911 from a cell phone, all of the calls are routed to the same CHP dispatch office. Apparently, they get a little overloaded... specifically, 3 minutes overloaded today.

For the sake of yourself or others, please:
1. Use a landline if you can - it goes immedtiately to a local dispatch.
2. Program a 7 digit emergency # into your cell phone.

For Long Beach, these are our options:
Police emergencies - (562) 435-6711
Fire emergencies - (562) 436-8211

For LA County, this your option:
Fire and Medical Emergencies - (310) 456-6603

Thank you for reading, and thank you taking the time to ulitmately help someone in the future.