2 Children, Adult Killed In Fire and yet again (Firefighters Drive To Wrong Building) in NYC

A man and his two children were killed in a fire in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The apartment on the top floor of the six-story building at 654 St. Mark's Avenue caught fire at around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Fox 5 News reported on Wednesday that firefighters were delayed in getting to fire because they were went to the wrong address.

People who live in the neighborhood say they had to run to another block direct the fire trucks to the correct address.

Fire department officials say crews were on the scene three minutes after they were dispatched and the flames were put out about thirty minutes later.

Police say the victims are a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 43-year-old. They were transported to a hospital where they later died.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. A source told Fox 5 News that the investigation was centering on the possibility that burning incense sparked the fire.

The FDNY reviewed recordings of the dispatcher calls.

Wednesday evening the FDNY issued this statement:

"Fire Department units that responded to a fatal fire in Brooklyn this afternoon were not given a specific address. They were dispatched based on information from two 911 callers - both via cell phones - reporting a fire in the vicinity of Rogers Avenue and Prospect Avenue. Units arrived at that location in just over 3 minutes - and learned upon their arrival at the callers' location that the fire was around the corner. The units immediately proceeded to that location and initiated fire rescue and suppression operations. They did not respond to a wrong address. They responded to the location provided by both calls to 911."
-Frank Gribbon, FDNY Spokesperson

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Comment by John Crabbe on November 20, 2009 at 12:52am
They were dispatched based on information from two 911 callers - both via cell phones - reporting a fire in the vicinity of Rogers Avenue and Prospect Avenue

There in lies one of the biggest problems we face. Damn near everyone has a cell phone, everyone thinks they are doing the "right thing" by calling, but rarely do many stick around or give better insight. I can't count the number of "smoke investigation" calls we went on because of a passerby on a cell phone, only to be from a chimney etc. Even in this article, what does the headline say?...The FD went to the "wrong" building.....that's the eye catcher....rarely do people read further to the point it says "2 different callers on cell phones".
Comment by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on November 19, 2009 at 12:12am
its a shame it became a fatal but since cells can be pin pointed now a days and the triangulation only takes 1 minute why didn't dispatch perform that task while units were in route? where were the squad cars?...and what address did they get?...how about the automatic response of medic crew where did they respond to?..my last wonder here is why didn't 911 stay on the call or call back?..if they did wheres the comminication being dropped here. I did not hear or see anything on this so seriously curious

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