Crime & Safety
Pierce County 911 Service Back To Normal After Midday Outage
911 service has been restored after a county-wide outage early Monday. Dispatchers ask that residents don't test their service.
PIERCE COUNTY, WA — An unplanned outage cut off 911 service for Pierce County residents for several hours Monday.
South Sound 911 first reported the outage just before 11 a.m. As of 2 p.m., the agency says all service has been restored.
Our 911 phone lines and network are back to normal. Please don’t “test” your 911 service (or dial 911 & hang-up). Doing so prevents us from answering calls from those in need of emergency aid. 911 = EMERGENCIES ONLY. pic.twitter.com/Vkn3XUb43g
— South Sound 911 (@SouthSound911) October 18, 2021
During the outage, South Sound 911 was able to activate its alternate line at 253-382-5000. Now that 911 calls are going through as normal, the alternate line has been suspended.
Find out what's happening in Puyallupfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Now that the issue has been resolved, dispatchers ask that residents do not call 911 unless they have an active emergency, and do not try to 'test' the outage by calling 911.
First responder groups across the county rely on South Sound 911 to handle their emergency calls, including the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Central Pierce Fire & Rescue, and others.
Find out what's happening in Puyallupfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
An outage is affecting 911 service at South Sound 911. If you have an emergency in Pierce County and your call doesn't go through, call 253-382-5000. pic.twitter.com/qfYFi5BLYw
— Central Pierce Fire & Rescue (@CentralPierce) October 18, 2021
Investigators say the outage was likely caused by an equipment failure at South Sound 911's new building.
The network outage is due to a cut fiber & redundancy failure. 911 calls are being rerouted, but if your 911 call does not go through call 253-382-5000.
— South Sound 911 (@SouthSound911) October 18, 2021
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