Software gets blamed for sirens

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March 18, 2010

9-1-1 director says glitch to be fixed today

by Kevin Lilly Pharos-Tribune Thu Mar 18, 2010, 10:13 PM EDT

The sirens heard throughout Logansport Wednesday night were not part of testing done for Severe Weather Awareness Week.

Dispatch center director Dan McDonald said the emergency sirens that sounded at 11:16 p.m. were the result of an issue in the computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, system.

“The malfunction was with a minor software glitch,” McDonald said.

At 11:16 p.m., the dispatch center received a 9-1-1 request for an ambulance in the 400 block of West Linden Avenue. Protocol requires Logansport firefighters to accompany medics on first responder calls in the city. McDonald said the dispatcher heard the tones for the fire department just before the sirens began wailing.

Dispatchers canceled the alarm as quickly as they could, McDonald said.

The 9-1-1 director spent Thursday trying to pinpoint what happened. He concluded that the statewide testing held in conjunction with Severe Weather Awareness Week earlier that day had not contributed to the software issue. He also ruled out dispatcher error.

McDonald attributed the unintentional sounding of the emergency alarms to a cross transmission.

“If more than one person is doing something at the same time, there is a software conflict,” McDonald said.

Representatives of Emergency Radio Services visited the dispatch center Thursday. McDonald said they called the glitch a “one in a million thing.”

McDonald said CAD provider Cushing Technologies planned to install a fix this morning and he did not anticipate the problem occurring again.

• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com.

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