Today in Durham region in Ontario, the 911 system inexplicably failed....HOWEVER what has made this a serious issue, is the fact that if a person experiencing an emergency dials 911, their phone service will 'freeze' and they will be unable to use their telephone at all! Police and Bell are working frantically on this, but at last report, they said they had no idea what the cause of this strange occurance is, and are using radio and media to attempt to notify region residents NOT to use 911 and are providing an alternative phone number. This could be very serious, if someone having an emergency has not heard this and dials 911. Once dialed, their phone service no longer works, and unable to phone elsewhere for help, the consequences could be horrific. Of course...no mention of y2k relation to this strange occurance whatsoever. Hmmmmmm. Nor with yesterdays explosion in the hydro transformer by sick kids hospital in Toronto. again....hmmmmmmm.

-- Justan Observer (justan observer@ontario.com), January 10, 2000

Answers

Bizarre ... do you have a link to anything on the Web for this?

Thanks for posting -- I wonder if this is a situation unique to your area of Ontario, or whether it might possibly afflict other 911 systems in Canada, or south of the border...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), January 10, 2000.

Mon Jan 10 16:30:07 2000 ET

Switching station caused 911 system to crash

TORONTO (CP) -- The emergency 911 telephone system east of the city was restored Monday afternoon after it was out of service for five hours. A problem at Bell Canada's switching station in Oshawa caused Durham region residents to have their phone line paralysed when they called the emergency number. Police publicized a backup number while the system was down and said no serious emergencies occurred while the problem was being fixed.

-- (here's@link.here), January 10, 2000.

January 9, 2000

Dozens evacuated from renowned children's hospital after electrical fire damages loading dock

TORONTO (CP) -- About 100 people were evacuated from the pediatric unit of the Hospital for Sick Children after an electrical fire broke out Sunday.
Patients were sent to nearby hospitals and some were held temporarily in public transit buses.
The fire occurred at the hospital's loading dock and knocked out power in several adjoining downtown blocks.
Police say it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, but investigators suspected a transformer exploded in the hospital's receiving area.
The power was expected to be out for several hours. There were no reports of any injuries and police said patients weren't endangered.

-- (here's@link.here), January 10, 2000.

In July the EXACT same thing happened with 911 calls in Canada. - That's why I made sure I had a rotary phone.

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... The ripples were pure idiosyncracy. They missed much of Montreal, but hit Halifax, Vancouver, Chicago. They knocked out touchtone phones but not rotary dial phones - for those who remember what they are ...

A Bell equipment ''glitch'' in Peel left a million people without 911 service for much of Sunday.

And - oh, devious technology - many of those who dialed 911 without result found they couldn't call anyone else for help, either. That's because the 911 system is designed to maintain connections to trace calls, even if callers hang up ...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0017Gg

I would have thought they would have had it fixed by now!!

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), January 10, 2000.

---yep, the ole BITR really applys when ya need an ambulance or call a firetruck or something. Remember all the polly statements about minor problems? They need to tell that to anyone who needed that service and didn't get it, if/when some real incidents come out. wonder how many will follow up on that, ie, call the hospital and tell those folks to quit whining about BITR y2k (<---alledged) problems?

just a -wondering'

oh ya, pollys, be sure to include all your professional degrees when you are calling those folks up and telling them they have just experienced a bump in the road, it'll make em feel SO much better!

-- itain'twhytookay (not@problem.keep.paying.bill), January 11, 2000.