Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030195
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BURNING MOTEL'S CALLS NOT COMPLETED
Three telephone calls were made to Roanoke County emergency dispatchers from the Holiday Inn-Salem early Sunday in the minute before a call from the burning motel was mistakenly routed to dispatchers in Roanoke.And a fourth call was made to the county while dispatchers were trying to determine the fire's location.
But all four county calls were abandoned before they got through, the county police chief says.
Exactly what happened has not been determined. An earlier account from the motel's night clerk suggests he may have been the one who made the calls - but that he abandoned them because the front-desk switchboard appeared not to be working.
The clerk, Akram Habazi, then called 911 from a pay telephone at the motel. That call was routed to Roanoke dispatchers, causing the confusion and delay in the response to the fire.
Asked Tuesday how many times he had tried to call 911 from the switchboard, Habazi said he could not answer until given clearance by the motel's management.
Roanoke County fire officials determined Tuesday that the fire was electrical in nature. It was classified as an accidental fire, meaning arson was not suspected.
The fire apparently began in a bellman's closet next to a room that contained the phone system.
C&P Telephone Co. records indicate that three calls were made from the motel to Roanoke County dispatchers at 2:46 a.m., one minute before city dispatchers received the initial completed call.
The fourth came at 2:57 a.m.
The four abandoned calls came through the motel's system.
Don Reid, local manager of C&P, said telephone company records show the four 911 calls were processed through the switching stations in Salem and downtown Roanoke before being forwarded to Roanoke County dispatchers.
"Whoever made the calls abandoned them," Reid said.
Roanoke County Police Chief John Cease said the four calls never rang into the dispatch center or appeared on computer screens in front of dispatchers.
"I got zero telephone calls," Cease said.
Reid acknowledged Monday that the C&P 911 database contained an incorrect address for the pay telephone at the motel. When the call was directed to city dispatchers, a computer screen showed the call as coming from Krisch Hotels Inc. at 1917 Franklin Road in Roanoke.
Krisch Hotels owns both the Holiday Inn-South on Franklin Road and the Holiday Inn-Salem on Skyview Road, located on a Roanoke County hillside overlooking Interstate 81.
According to authorities, city dispatchers received a call about the fire from Habazi at 2:47 a.m. He frantically gave Salem as the location, but a tape of the brief conversation indicated that Habazi, who speaks with an accent, was difficult to understand.
The city dispatcher who took the call did not ask Habazi to verify the address although the 911 computer system indicated he was calling from the 387 exchange, which generally is reserved for the Salem area.
Roanoke firefighters were dispatched to the Holiday Inn on Franklin Road, but reported the call as a false alarm.
After replaying the tape of the call, the city dispatcher thought Habazi had said Salem. She called Salem and Roanoke County in an attempt to locate the fire. Salem dispatchers said that Salem had no Holiday Inns. The county dispatcher reported receiving no information about a fire at a Holiday Inn.
Following prodding from city dispatchers, county dispatchers sent police units to check the three county Holiday Inns.
Volunteer firefighters from Fort Lewis were dispatched after a county police officer verified the fire at 3:07 a.m., 20 minutes after Habazi reported it to the city.
The firefighters arrived at the motel at 3:20 a.m., 33 minutes after Habazi first reported the fire.
John Poff, senior vice president for Krisch Hotels Inc., said county firefighters did a good job in combating the blaze, which did at least $1 million damage to the motel's restaurant, lobby and conference rooms.
"I cannot say enough about the way Roanoke County responded," Poff said. "There was more than ample manpower. Not only have they acted properly, but they have stayed with it."
Poff said Habazi's efforts in alerting authorities and motel guests may have saved lives. "He acted quickly and used incredible common sense," Poff said.
Poff still was trying to make sense out of what went wrong with the 911 system:
"It's supposed to be so simple that a child could use it. Is it?"
Roanoke County officials said that one incorrect address in the C&P computer should not cast doubt on the entire 911 system.
"The thousands of calls that have been answered correctly speak for themselves," County Administrator Elmer Hodge said.
writer David M. Poole contributed to this story.