Vonage Puts VoIP 911 Caller on Hold 464
kamikaze-Tech writes "It is being reported on the Vonage Forums that last month when Loren Veltkamp's
Chanhassen, Minnesota home caught on fire, he immediately called 9-1-1 using
Vonage. Unfortunately,
Vonage put him on hold, causing a delay in the response from emergency
workers. By the time fire crews arrived, the fire had become a five-alarm blaze.
The house was a total loss."
Why VoIP? (Score:5, Insightful)
Any reason he didn't have access to another phone?
Traditionally you exit your burning house ASAP and call from a house next door...
-nB
Re:Dupe "Article" (Score:5, Insightful)
Anybody who only has Vonage without some form of backup line (either a bare bones land line or a cell phone) is a bit of a moron anyway- what would he have done if a candle lit the drapes on fire during a power outage?
Re:Dupe "Article" (Score:4, Insightful)
When my mothers house caught on fire, She was sure she was fine to go back in, went in to get her keys so she could moce her car, coming back out they dragged her away. SHe kept saying it wasn't a big deal.
They dashboard in her car was melting.
My mother is not a moron. SHe's gt problems, but she is smart.
My point is, don't judge this guy based on this incident, many people feel they are 'safe enough' in a fire, when they are not.
Re:Dupe "Article" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nothing to see here (Score:5, Insightful)
The imminent loss of life, limb or property. Or at least that is the standard in most locales. Breaking your wrist isn't an "emergency". Cutting it with a razorblade is.
The problem is they should ENFORCE fines for "obvious" misuse, such as calls for barking dogs, etc. No fines for borderline cases (ie: when there is an injury, extremely loud sound that could have been explosion, smell of gas, etc.) but for the very obvious.
At least $200 for a first time offense and going up another $200 for each subsequent non-emergency calls in a 3 year period. There are already enough laws on the books to cover this. The problem is that it is not enforced.
Same for people who don't pull over when an ambulance/firetruck is trying to get by, except considerably higher fines ($500 for the first offense that is without an affirmative defense). Not so ironic, people are usually quick to pull over to make room for the police...
Re:This should surprise no one (911 horror stories (Score:3, Insightful)
only 911 is guaranteed to be staffed 24/7.
WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
Vonage put the call on hold?? Or was it the 911 operator?
I wasn't aware Vonage operated 911 call centers. Do they have SLAs with emergency responders?
If Vonage [equipment] didn't answer the call, they were just providing the transport.
Next time the wife hangs up on me am I supposed to call Cingular and open a trouble ticket
for dropped calls on my cell phone?
Please.
PARENT IS A TROLL (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dupe "Article" (Score:2, Insightful)
The same thing people did before EVERYBODY had a telephone: run to the neighbors.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
>Vonage put the call on hold?? Or was it the 911 operator?
The premise of the story is that Vonage did, presumably in the process of routing the call to the localized 911. They have to do some processing, in order to provide localized 911 at all, and they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance.
The discussion board is light on details, and in particular, the questions I'd ask as a juror aren't even approached. Was this a delay between the CO and the 911 call center? How did the route trace at the time of the call, in terms of the customer's broadband connection, and in terms of the voip packets? When was the 911 call initiated? When was it received by Vonage? What are the specific details of the handling of that call, timestamped logs please. If Vonage can't provide that information, as a juror I'd be willing to impose bankrupting fines against the company and recommend criminal prosecutions for the people who knew or should have known that this system could fail.
On the other hand, if the company can demonstrate due diligence, and especially if they can show that the same hold time would have resulted from a landline 911 call terminated at the same CO, then I'd find for the company. Either way, the homeowner has no fault. Any insurance company that tried to dismiss a claim because the homeowner used Vonage for 911, should lose.
Re:Fire: respect it or die (Score:3, Insightful)
They might grab the pot, start moving it toward a door, and be overcome by the heat, slopping some burning grease onto themselves or onto the floor, if they don't drop the pot completely.
Re:Something i learned about smoke and fire. (Score:3, Insightful)
A large portion of the people who die in fires die sleeping in their beds, never waking at all.
Get a smoke-alarm. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot of an improvement.
Flour *IS* better than water (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't be at all surprised if a knowledgeable instructor said (sarcastically) "You'd be better off throwing flour", knowing that flour could ultimately become a fuel. Then trainee misunderstands the sarcasm as "Flour is a really good idea".
Now, one thing I'd say is that throwing flour from 5 feet away would creat a nice fine mist of fuel that military types call FAE (Fuel/Air Explosive). Bad, bad news.
On the other hand, pouring a couple of kilos of flower from a foot or two away would attack the two primary methods of stopping a fire:
When flour hits hot grease, there's a chemical reaction that takes place (first step for making cream sauces). This reaction is probably endothermic, which would further cool the fuel.
Strangely this is actually how placing a lid on the pot helps to put out a fire... It removes the exothermic ("hot") fuel-air interface point from the surface of the grease, thus slowing down the feedback loop of heating the grease from both top and bottom -- now you just need to get the bottom of the grease away from the hot burner....
So, he's not completely out to lunch -- but I'd say that if you have an ABC or K fire extinguisher on hand, or just a lid (or another, larger pan), that's probably a better solution ... Just remember... Never put water on an oil/grease/gasoline fire.
Last point: Firefighters walk into these kinds of fires with equipment that goes well beyond choosing between flour and baking soda. If it gets to the point where a (fully suited) firefighter is choosing between flour and baking soda to put out a fire, (s)he's probably also wondering about whether his/her last will and testament is up to date. I seriously doubt that they get in-depth training about the nuances of using common kitchen ingredients as firefighting tools.