Floodwaters rose against the front windows of a doggy day care facility and burst into the business, drowning 10 dogs and endangering workers’ lives.
More than a week after the dogs died during flooding in Northeast D.C. on Aug. 14, the director of the city’s 911 call center said a series of errors and obstacles led to the delayed dispatch of first responders.
News4 is learning when dispatchers received 911 calls, what callers said and what went wrong along the way.
In new details released Tuesday, DC Fire and EMS said rescue swimmers faced a harrowing scene.
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“The rescue swimmers immediately entered the store, where they encountered extremely hazardous conditions including live wires, contaminated waters, and destroyed walls creating entanglement hazards,” the department said in a statement.
“As the waters receded, the rescue swimmers were able to reach the lower dog kennels and discovered ten dogs that had passed away in the flooding,” DC Fire and EMS said.
The owners of dogs who died wept last week as they worried that their dogs had died in cages.
District Dogs said Tuesday that they “remain committed to and focused on supporting our staff and clients” and had no further comment.
The first 911 call reporting the floodwaters rushing into District Dogs came in at 5:06 p.m. But rescue teams didn’t begin to enter for another 20 minutes.
Here’s what we know about the flood response timeline:
After days of questions from reporters about what happened, the director of the call center said Monday that the flooding in District Dogs on Rhode Island Avenue NE was initially classified as a “water leak." The system used by 911 call-takers did not have a way to categorize a flooded building. That has since been changed, and these calls will be categorized as building collapses.
Officials also said a dispatcher did not elevate the call to a high enough priority level after improperly reading notes in their computer system.
“We could have done things differently. This was an unprecedented event, and so now as we look at what we could have done differently, we are making changes,” said Heather McGaffin, director of the D.C. Office of Unified Communications.
It’s unclear if a faster response by rescue teams could have saved any of the dogs.
McGaffin cited short-staffing and refused to apologize for the dogs' deaths.
“I don’t have an answer other than, we’re looking at everything, we’re walking through things, we’re talking about things,” she said.
D.C. City Administrator Kevin Donahue said late week that he had listened to all the 911 calls. He said the first two calls did not convey a sense of urgency and that’s why dispatchers did not act or dispatch first responders until the third call.
The transcript of the first call shows the caller said, “It’s flooding horribly. The walls gave out. The whole building is going underwater right now.” They told the 911 call-taker that there were people and dogs inside.
‘I felt as though I was being held responsible’
Corvo Leung placed that call and until Monday believed they hadn’t given the 911 call-taker enough information on the crisis.
“I had started to blame myself,” Leung said.
But we now know they made what happened perfectly clear.
Leung saw the flood unfold on closed circuit cameras. Their partner is manager of the facility. They said they felt District officials were unfairly passing on some blame for the delayed dispatch.
“I felt as though I was being held responsible in some ways,” Leung said.
D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said Monday that by 5:10 p.m., the department knew people were trapped inside. But firefighters didn’t enter the building for another 20 minutes, at 5:30 p.m. Donnelly said Monday that he wished they had gone in earlier.
About 20 dogs and seven people were rescued from District Dogs.
Owner Jacob Hensley cried as he spoke with News4 about the tragedy.
"We're all in this business because we love dogs. We love dogs so much. This is not what we want to do," he said through tears.
‘This is what 911 is all about’
The answers that D.C. officials gave on Monday were met with frustration by some.
Resident Colleen Costello’s dog, Maple, died in the flooding. She said the District’s response to the emergency worries her.
“I personally believe that every resident in the District of Columbia needs to be very concerned about their personal safety and well-being because there is no guarantee in my mind that first responders will be there as quickly as we expect them or need them to be,” said Costello, who serves as an advisory neighborhood commissioner.
Dave Statter also criticized the city’s response. He was a firefighter and emergency dispatcher before a nearly four-decade career as a D.C. news broadcaster specializing in fire and emergency response.
“They described it as an unprecedented call. It’s not unprecedented. This is what 911 is all about,” Statter said.
“That there is a wall that broke down, that there’s water in the building, that there are people and dogs trapped — that is an emergency. They didn’t put it out as an emergency,” he added.
