The union representing Wichita firefighters is claiming that errors by Sedgwick County’s 911 system are to blame for the death of a young woman in an apartment fire on October 13th.

The fire at the Brookhollow Apartments at 8165 East Central resulted in the death of 22-year-old Paoly Bedeski.

The International Association of Firefighters Local 135 released a statement Tuesday saying that firefighters were never told that someone was trapped inside the apartment building where the fire broke out.   The union said information from 911 callers, including Bedeski, was not passed along to firefighters and EMS crews at the scene.   The union said that emergency communications has had issues in recent months with providing the wrong address to first responders, and an excessive wait time for callers to talk to a dispatcher.  The union is calling for a third-party review of the response to the apartment fire, and it’s urging Sedgwick County to address training and resources.

Sedgwick County Emergency Communications Director Elora Forshee made a statement in response to the union’s comments.  She said the 911 call was received at 3:57 a.m. on October 13th and it was answered within 12 seconds.  It was entered for dispatch in one minute and 15 seconds as dispatchers determined where the call was coming from.  It was entered and dispatched within 45 seconds from there, and the first crews got to the scene at 4:02 a.m.   By 4:12 a.m. there were 15 fire apparatus and 38 firefighters on the scene, which soon expanded to 18 fire apparatus and 51 firefighters.   Forshee said the call did not come out as a “persons trapped” call because the caller was too difficult to understand as several calls were coming in on the fire.   She said issues with calling in a second alarm have been addressed with staff.   Forshee said she is not opposed to a third-party review.