Update: Miscommunication Caused Paramedics to Arrive Late to Sahalee Blaze in August

As a curtain of flames climbed towards the Sammamish sky on Aug. 24 and consumed a Sahalee rambler in the process, neighbors reached for their phones and called for help.

An Eastside Fire & Rescue engine raced to the scene, arriving within nine minutes after calls were placed. But some residents wondered why a boxy red ambulance with paramedics was not as fast. Dale Simpson, an elderly resident, with burns to his head.

It turns out, an ambulance with a fire crew that can provide advance life support made its way to the Sahalee neighborhood only after the incident commander learned of Simpson, reviews show and fire officials said.

Initially, emergency crews did not realize that a person needed medical attention because, for some reason, that information was never relayed clearly enough by 911 dispatchers, Eastside Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief Wes Collins told the Sammamish City Council on Sept. 13.

Collins said that callers had told dispatchers of some type of information that he deemed "valuable." But not until a neighbor approached Glenn Huffman, the Eastside Fire & Rescue battalion chief at the scene, with a report of a hurt person did a request for a medic unit go out over the radio, Collins said.

"That failure of communication meant that we didn’t provide as good of service as we could have to a citizen," he told the City Council.

"We like to provide excellent service, (to) this citizen and those who were waiting with him who suffered that trauma of a delayed response to this victim that they had in their midst. It’s unacceptable to us. It's an unacceptable response."

The , Eastside Fire & Rescue, the NORCOM dispatch center in Bellevue and the Sahalee Maintenance Association, which represents homeowners, are looking into this incident, which scrambled about 40 firefighters. Officials are poring over time logs as well as recounting what occurred.

Simpson was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in serious condition. As of last week, he remained in the hospital. 

"We're going to do all we can to make sure those kinds of situations don’t happen again," Collins said, referring to the delayed medic unit arrival and adding that the fire response time met the agency's standards.

Huffman, he said, showed up on the scene seven minutes after the first engine. The fire ambulance with paramedics raced from Issaquah Highlands-based Station 73 and arrived about 15 minutes after Huffman called.

On the same day that Collins talked to the City Council, the Sahalee Maintenance Association met with Eastside Fire & Rescue Chief Lee Soptich and Huffman, said Doug Smith, a board member and head of the group's disaster preparedness task force.

Smith learned that the first units showed up within nine minutes of the emergency calls reaching 911 operators. It was unknown Sunday whether Huffman arrived within those nine minutes. At the City Council meeting, Collins did not have that time readily available.

In an email, Smith expressed concern on many fronts - about Simpson's condition, about the fact that Simpson and his wife lost their house, about whether a similar incident could happen to a city resident and about whether emergency teams "are doing the best that they can."

"I am confident that review of this incident by EFR and the city of Sammamish will help improve responses to future incidents," he wrote in his email.

On that hot evening in the 2000 block of 208th Place Northeast, some residents voiced frustration about a lack of a faster medic unit on the scene. The fire was reported at about 6 p.m.

But about an hour later, residents stood near the smoldering tan house and talked openly about how they felt paramedics did not arrive until about 45 minutes after calls for help. Some expressed concerns to Sammamish Patch. Later, on the street, others took their questions directly to Huffman.

At the scene, Eastside firefighters, who are emergency medical technicians, applied basic life support assistance to Simpson, Collins said.

An aid truck, which looks similar to a medic ambulance but is staffed with emergency medical technicians, had made its way from a station near Sunset Elementary in Bellevue. This particular aid truck was staffed by volunteer firefighters, who typically leave their homes and head to the station before jumping into their rig.

Part of the issue, Collins added, is that the fire agency typically sends three engines, a ladder truck and a battalion chief to structure fires. A medic unit is summoned if it is known that there is an injured person. 

While the NORCOM dispatch center is investigating the incident, Collins told the City Council that emergency operators were informed of a fire victim, or the possibility of one. He believes dispatchers made notations as information was arriving. 

"What we're doing is talking with the dispatch center and asking them to review why valuable information that they were receiving by phone calls wasn't being relayed to us," Collins said after he addressed the City Council.

On Monday, NORCOM spokeswoman Sheryl Mullen issued a statement, via email, to Sammamish Patch. She noted that Eastside Fire & Rescue officials asked on Sept. 7 what information the dispatcher received and what was verbally given to responding crews.

"Callers reported to NORCOM that a 'male may be inside' and responding units were advised 'unknown if parties are out.' It was acknowledged that while similar in message, it would have been more clear to provide the exact information given by the callers to the responding units," she said in her email.

"Fire units have access to the comments entered into calls through the use of mobile data computers in the rigs. However, it is expected that fire dispatchers will verbally provide short report information to responding units. NORCOM has since had the opportunity to share that feedback with the involved fire dispatcher in an effort to prevent future miscommunication."

At last week's meeting, City Manager Ben Yazici talked about needing more information about the case. But he discussed the information that he had learned as of Sept. 13. 

"I think what we got is that the 911 dispatch is saying the caller is reporting the garage is on fire, fully involved, that there are two people living there. It is unknown if they are out," Yazici, who later talked privately with Collins, said.

While , located on 228th Avenue Northeast, has an aid truck and is the closest to the Sahalee neighborhood, Collins said the agency uses a "jump staffing" approach to fighting blazes and providing emergency medical care.

This means that the station's three-person crew boarded the fire engine, given the information that was being received. That left the aid truck in the station.

An aid truck, Collins said, usually carries emergency medical technicans. A medic truck, though, has paramedics, who have more training and can provide advance life support.

The closest paramedic crew to the Sahalee neighborhood is Redmond-based Medic 19, Collins said. But on that day at that time, that medic team was responding to another emergency.

The closest paramedic unit available was Medic 14, the one based on the Issaquah Highlands. Medic units, Collins explained, are run through King County and there is a limited number of them.

Also during the Aug. 24 fire, commuters were heading home and ambulances and emergency vehicles had to manuever through rush-hour traffic on 228th Avenue Northeast, especially near . 

Collins added that Medic 19 can beat Medic 14 to that Sahalee location by about three minutes. 

Overall, Smith, of the homeowners association, lauded the fire crews for stopping the blaze from jumping to neighboring homes. He pointed out that the area has tall trees. 

"I think we would all like to have a magic wand to stop tragedies like this immediately but short of that, I'm glad we have trained professionals willing to risk their own lives to respond to our emergencies," he said in his email.

"We should all strive to do better, but also give credit where it's due."

Editor's note: This story has been revised since it was first posted to include information sent Monday by the NORCOM dispatch center. An earlier version of the story talked about a "lack of communication." But it appears there was a "miscommunication," based on information from NORCOM. Neighbors who helped Dale Simpson from the burning house will be .