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DC Engineer Banned From City Buildings After Switching Off 911 Service

(KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

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Steve Birr Vice Reporter
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An engineer with a Washington, D.C., contractor accidentally hit the wrong switch to try and shut off an alarm Saturday night, inadvertently causing an outage of 911 emergency services.

The D.C. Office of Unified Communications confirmed Monday the engineer, who remains anonymous, is banned from ever working in government buildings in the District again. Further disciplinary action is up to the contractor that employs the engineer. Officials in D.C. were able to determine the problem within 20 minutes and began restarting the systems, however, in the 90 minutes 911 service was down, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) missed an estimated 300 to 350 calls, reports WUSA9.

Emergency calls also failed to go through to the system’s backup server, so officials have no way of knowing the precise number of missed calls.

“It was kind of creepy because it would go silent, and you could hear yourself echoing,” Whitney Burns, a Northeast, D.C., resident, told WUSA9. “So I really was like…is this a horror movie?”

Burns attempted to call police after she heard what sounded like a woman being attacked in an alley, but never got through.

Two phone lines were established to contact either the MPD or D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services during the outage. Officials said they only received 40 calls on both lines. It is likely callers experienced delays even after officials restored power. Mayor Muriel Bowser encouraged people on Twitter at 2 a.m. EST Sunday morning, after officials restored service, to remain on the line so they would stay in the queue for service.

Officials continue to investigate how many residents were affected by the breakdown in emergency services. Police ask that residents come forward and let them know about any missed calls.

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