WASHINGTON — Officials said in a press conference the 911 system outage was due to equipment failure. Earlier Sunday morning, calls to D.C.’s 911 were not going through at all, but city officials said calls started going through as of 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
The Twitter account for D.C.’s 311 service reported around midnight that the city’s 911 system was “experiencing a service interruption.”
City officials said there was no power outage inside the facility. There were no signs of nefarious activity such as outside hacking. D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Director Chris Geldart said that investigations for the failure were ongoing and outside technicians would be called in for inspections.
Authorities said the system could not transfer 911 calls to the backup center. With all the boxes going down, it was not possible to transfer the calls to another system.
According to Karima Holmes, director of the Office of Unified Communications, there is no count of the calls missed. D.C. Fire Department received 35 calls to the alternative phone number during the outage. Police received five calls.
For alternate numbers, callers can use 202-727-9099 for D.C. police and 202-673-7197 for D.C. fire/EMS.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 911 is now receiving calls. Remain on the line rather than calling back.
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) August 28, 2016
IMPORTANT UPDATE:DC911 service has been restored. Please call 911 if you have an emergency. @OUCDirector @dcfireems @DCPoliceDept @DC_HSEMA
— 311 DC Operations (@311DCgov) August 28, 2016
