DC 911 call center made errors during response to tragic District Dogs flood, director says

At a confrontational press conference Monday, the director of D.C.’s 911 call center acknowledged errors were made in the dispatch of first responders to the dog daycare where dogs drowned in flash flooding last week.

Ten dogs died when 6 feet of water rose up against District Dogs and a wall collapse, letting the water rush inside.

When the first 911 call came in at 5:06 p.m. on Aug. 14, the call center knew people and dogs were trapped.

The third call, at 5:18 p.m., came from someone inside the business saying they were trapped.

At 5:21 p.m. via a radio dispatch, firefighters at the scene were first told people were trapped inside.

D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said Monday that by 5:10 p.m., they knew people were trapped inside, but firefighters didn’t get to them for another 20 minutes.

Rescuers didn’t gain entry into the building until 5:30 p.m. Donnelly said he wishes they went in earlier.  

At 5:31 p.m., someone in the building called 911 saying they were still waiting to be rescued.

One of the dispatchers misspoke when characterizing the problem at District Dogs as a water leak, D.C. Office of Unified Communications Director Heather McGaffin said. Because the District had never seen a flood like that, they didn’t have a code in their system to categorize a flooded building.

A week later, they will be categorizing a flooded building as a building collapse going forward.

There also was an error from a dispatcher who did not elevate the call to a high enough priority level because they didn’t properly read the notes in the computer, McGaffin said.

She put a lot of the blame on short staffing.

“What I am saying is we could have done things differently,” McGaffin said. “This was an unprecedented event, and so now, as we look at what we could have done differently, we are making changes.”

“I don’t have an answer other than we’re looking at everything, we’re walking through things, we’re talking about things,” she added.

Last week, D.C.’s city administrator, Kevin Donahue, said the first two 911 calls didn’t convey an emergency, but the transcript provided by the call center shows the first caller said, “It’s flooding horribly. The walls gave out. The whole building is going under water right now.”

She told them there were people and dogs inside.

About 20 dogs and seven people were rescued from District Dogs.

The business, which offers day care, grooming and boarding services, also was damaged by floodwaters in August 2022.