It wasn't just people setting off fireworks that were lighting thing up in Douglas County Thursday night. Callers to 9-1-1 were lighting up the phone lines at the Douglas County Emergency Communications center.
Director David Sleeter says the high call volume was markedly higher than previous years, even causing the lines to become backlogged with calls. Sleeter issued this statement Friday afternoon:
"On July 5, 2018 at approximately 9:30 p.m., the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center received information that some wireless callers were experiencing a “fast busy” signal when attempting to reach 9-1-1. This was due to an exceptionally large number of callers with fireworks complaints. The Communications Center processed 434 fireworks-related calls on July 5, 2018 as compared to 171 fireworks-related calls from the same time period last year.
Depending on the wireless carrier and the call volume at the time the call was placed, the call may or may not have been able to reach 9-1-1. To the best of our knowledge, the issue was resolved within an hour.
The Emergency Communications Center’s 9-1-1 telephone system during this time period operated as designed, and landline calls continued to ring into the 9-1-1 Center."