I-TEAM: Silent alarms within the Augusta Fire Department

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - What happens when you call 911 for a fire emergency? The hope is the dispatcher will immediately tell you that the fire department is on the way.

The I-TEAM is continuing to dig deeper into Augusta’s 911 center and emergency response throughout Richmond County.

The Augusta Fire Department implemented a new dispatching software for fire departments called Purvis in late 2021.

For months, the I-TEAM has gathered emails, documents and reports about the Augusta Fire Department and how it responds to emergency calls.

We found the system designed to make dispatching firefighters to your location easier is delayed, or even not completed altogether, making it a silent alarm.

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“I couldn’t have been gone an hour, hour and 15 minutes. I didn’t know what was going on at the time,” said Tommy Williams.

Time – it’s the standard for how well firefighters respond to urgent calls for help.

Caller: “There’s a fire at my neighbors. I can see it from my backyard. I think there’s a house on fire.”

Dispatch: “What road is that on?”

Caller: “It’s on Old Louisville Road. It’s directly across the street from the fire station.”

At 4:43 a.m. on October 14, 2023, calls flood Richmond County dispatch.

Caller: “The whole house looks like it’s engulfed. It’s literally right across the street from the fire department.”

A structure fire rages at 3443 Old Louisville Road — directly across the street from Augusta Fire Station 16.

Station 16: “All units be advised the house is directly across the street from 16. Heavy fire showing from the front and the backside.”

Before any crew responds, Station 16 radios back to dispatch saying they never received the initial call.

Station 16: “Dispatch from 16, be advised we didn’t get a call at the station.”

That morning, Tommy Williams and Farrah Hembree lost two important people in their lives.

Teresa Ingram, 69, and Rex Williams, 69, both ed away inside the home, just steps from the front door.

“They told me what was going on up there and I figured, you know, they got out,” said Tommy.

The I-TEAM requested Augusta 911′s report on the fire, which details everything 911 operators do when they get a call. Documents show the call came in at 4:43 a.m.

Within seconds, Station 16 is dispatched.

More than three minutes later, dispatch notes “Purvis is not working.” There’s an attempt to manually dispatch the crew, who then was on the scene after the second dispatch.

“How much closer can you get to a fire station? If we had a catastrophic incident, rock throwing distance to the fire department, and they can’t even get here,” said Tommy.

What was the issue when dispatchers were trying to alert Station 16 to respond to this call that was directly across the street?

The I-TEAM wanted to know more about Purvis and why dispatchers said it wasn’t working that morning.

Purvis is an automated system designed to dispatch the closest fire crew. A computer — not a human — dispatches calls.

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“Whenever there’s an emergency call for Augusta Fire, we can look at the recommendation on who is the closest unit that’s recommended for that location or units, because it could be a multiple unit response. And once we hit the recommendation, it automatically sends the voice out to the fire station to let them know that there’s an emergency call,” said Daniel Dunlap.

Dunlap is the director of Richmond County’s 911 Center.

The system went online in late 2021 in Richmond County. It’s costing taxpayers more than a million dollars to implement Purvis into each fire station and Augusta’s 911 Center.

That included adding equipment like speakers, lights, call timers and electronic screens. But the I-TEAM found the deadly fire on Old Louisville Road was one of nearly 150 cases we discovered where a dispatching error happened.

These cases of documented issues go back to January 2022, involving anything from structure fires to medical emergencies and car accidents. Emails between Augusta’s 911 Center and fire command show a variety of issues with the dispatching process over the past three years.

Hundreds of emails say, “Crews were notified by phone call due to Purvis failure.”

Another email reads, “Our alerting system is malfunctioning,” and “Engine 13 was dispatched over Purvis and did not receive tones. There was a 16-minute response to a call that was 200 yards from the station.”

Other emails and work orders show Purvis could’ve been impacted by the city’s network or faulty equipment at fire stations across the county.

Another email says, “There was a network outage and the internet was down for over three to four hours. During that time, Purvis failed to work. If you did not manually send the call, they never received it.”

If Purvis fails or the city’s network is down, dispatchers can manually radio stations to respond. That was the original way dispatchers alerted stations of a call.

“It could be an issue specifically at that station. So, if there’s an issue with service, we’re notifying the fire department of that issue,” said Dunlap.

How often has that happened? The I-TEAM filed an open records request with the fire department. The department came back with no records or logs of how often Purvis is down.

Who knows when Purvis or the network is down? 911 says a single console allows them to check the status of Purvis. If they see it’s not working, they will manually dispatch a unit. That means someone must notice the system is down.

The I-TEAM had already been looking into dispatching delays when our station at 1226 Gray Way experienced a problem firsthand.

On April 13, the fire alarm at News 12 went off, just after our morning newscast went on the air at 6:02 a.m.

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Station 10 wasn’t dispatched until 6:17 a.m. — 15 minutes later. There’s no reason for the delayed dispatch of 911 documents.

Our fire alarm was a false alarm. But for some families, these delays could mean the difference between life and death.

‘It’s been over six months now. It’s just not getting any better for me. You would think you’re so safe having a fire department straight across the street,” said Tommy.

The I-TEAM did reach out to Purvis for a comment. They directed us to the fire department.

We reached out to the Augusta Fire Department and Fire Chief Antonio Burden multiple times last week.

Late Monday afternoon, a spokesperson with the fire department responded to our emails, saying the problem is not a failure of the Purvis system itself, but an issue with transmitting information.

The Fire Department says it is aware of the problem and continues to investigate, despite the system being implemented in 2021.

“Following up on your previous email, I’m pleased to share a comprehensive response from our team addressing your questions about the Purvis System.

The Augusta Fire Department is committed to ensuring the fastest possible response times and the highest level of service for our community. We understand the critical role the Purvis System plays in dispatching emergency calls, and we take any potential disruptions to this system very seriously.

While we are aware of occasional technical issues with the Purvis System, it's important to clarify the root cause. Investigations have revealed that, in most cases, the issue lies with information transmission, not a failure of the Purvis System itself. We're actively working with engineers from both Purvis and our 911 CAD system provider to identify and address any contributing factors hindering this data transmission.

We want to assure you that the Fire Department has provisions in place to ensure emergency calls are dispatched to our firefighters even in the event of technical issues with the Purvis System receiving information from the CAD system. We constantly evaluate our emergency response systems and explore ways to enhance their redundancy and overall reliability.

While we don't maintain a separate log of these occurrences beyond submitted work orders, we are notified immediately when issues arise. This allows us to promptly engage our maintenance system and work towards a swift resolution. We are continuously evaluating our emergency response systems and exploring ways to further enhance their reliability and efficiency.

We appreciate the media's interest in public safety. We're committed to open communication and are happy to work with reporters to provide accurate information regarding the Purvis System and our emergency response procedures.

Technical challenges are inevitable in any complex system. Our focus remains on collaborative troubleshooting with Purvis and the 911 CAD system provider to ensure seamless data transfer and the most efficient dispatch of emergency calls. By working together, we can maintain the highest standard of emergency response that our community deserves."

We also reached out to Augusta Commissioner Catherine Smith-McKnight, who oversees the public safety committee, and Augusta’s Interim City Takiyah Douse. Both told us they were unaware of the issue.

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