Fire Department Arrived 5 Minutes Late To Fatal Waukesha Fire, System Error Cited

WAUKESHA, WI — A software error caused firefighters to arrive five minutes late to an apartment fire that killed two people, the Waukesha Police Department said Wednesday.

Firefighters didn't get a call through the city's automatic fire alerting system because of a software error, and a city staff member had to alert nearby fire stations manually when a blaze broke out Tuesday at 1211 Lambeth Road, police said in a statement.

The fire department arrived 10 minutes after the city received the first call at 1:25 a.m., but the computer dispatch system was supposed to send an alert to nearby fire stations, officials said. There was a five-minute gap between the first call at 1:25 a.m. and when the fire alert system was activated manually at 1:30 a.m., police records showed.

The first fire trucks arrived at 1:35 a.m., police said.

Police officers arrived 3 minutes after the call and helped two people escape from a second floor apartment, officials said. The two people jumped down from the second floor balcony to the officers outside.

"We learned that there was an issue in the Computer Aided Dispatch system which is to activate the automatic fire alerting system," police said. "The software did not alert the fire stations as designed, and once notified, the fire stations had to be alerted manually by a member of the City of Waukesha Communications Center."

Officials are investigating the cause of the error, police said.

Kevin McQuade, 50, and his wife Kim McQuade both died as a result of the fire. Their daughter Katrina has set up a fundraiser to cover funeral costs.

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