California Highway Patrol (CHP) Ignored Early Fire Calls
John Hill - Bee Capitol Bureau
"I'm on the golf course...and we can see smoke coming off the mountain to the west of us," said the first call received by the CHP's Truckee communications center at 2:02 pm on June 24.
"Yeah, they're doing a - a control burn up there," the dispatcher responds.
"Thank you," the unidentified caller responds. "Sorry to bother you."
The CHP says it is investigating potential misconduct by the two dispatchers, who have been given other assignments during the investigation.
CHP dispatchers are supposed to either refer a call to a CHP officer or stay on the line while it is transferred to another agency, Assistant Chief Sal Segura said in a press conference Friday releasing the 911 tapes.
They are also required to record the call on a computerized dispatch system.
Instead, the dispatchers appear to have dismissed the calls, telling the alarmed callers that they were seeing a controlled burn.
Not until seven to nine minutes later did the dispatchers, along with other 911 callers, finally alert the Lake Valley Fire Department, Segura said.
In fact, there were no controlled burns that day, or even that week, Segura said. He declined to answer questions about how the dispatchers came to believe there was a controlled burn, saying it was part of the investigation.
The dispatchers both had extensive experience, he said. One has been with the CHP for 27 years, mostly with dispatch, while the other has been a dispatcher for 17 years.
"We're not talking about rookies here," Segura said. "We're talking about experienced personnel."