911 call-takers busy over long weekend, but not swamped like during the heat dome

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The hot long weekend was a busy one for 911 call-takers in B.C., but call volumes were well below what some people had feared given what happened during the heat dome back in June.

E-Comm says it fielded around 6,600 calls on Friday and 6,400 Saturday. However, as the weekend continued on, numbers for Sunday and Monday dipped below 6,000 per day.

By comparison, E-Comm, which says it handles 99 per cent of 911 calls in B.C., was inundated with around 8,000 calls on Saturday July 26, at the height of the heat dome. There were more than 7,300 calls the following day.

“This is a historic increase of approximately 55 per cent compared to a normal weekend in June,” Jasmine Bradley with E-Comm said the following Monday.

The agency says it usually averages about 5,000 911 calls per day.

That led to many people waiting hours to contact emergency services, and later a reckoning by the province that more call-takers and paramedics need to be hired.

In mid-July, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced 85 new full-time paramedics and 30 full-time dispatchers will be hired. He also promised 22 new ambulances would be brought in.

The BC Coroners Service said over a seven-day period from Friday, June 25 through Thursday, July 1, 719 deaths were reported. It is believed the extreme weather was a significant contributing factor to the threefold increase in deaths.

A flood of calls to 911 resulted in long wait times for people who required emergency services, and compounded the ongoing problem of lengthy ambulance wait times.

Related articles:

• B.C. promises bolstered heatwave response after deadly spell last month

• B.C. 911 call-takers brace for increased demand as Lower Mainland heatwave looms

Dix has argued the median response time has come down in recent years, adding he’s aiming to see a response time of no more than nine minutes for “purple” calls, which are the highest priority.

“That’s a reasonable standard,” he said.

On Friday, the province also promised a bolstered response to the heatwave after sudden deaths quadrupled during June’s heat dome, compared to the average for that time period.

E-Comm is also responsible for answering non-emergency calls in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Last week, Bradley warned people calling the 10-digit numbers to reach the local police detachment could also find themselves waiting up to 45 minutes, depending on how many 911 calls are being made.

With files from Paul James, Charlie Carey, and Hana Mae Nassar