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Massachusetts 911 system restored after nationwide outage

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A statewide outage of the 911 system in Massachusetts has ended, officials with the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security said. “The 911 system in Massachusetts has been restored,” the agency announced on social media. “The public can now call 911 again for emergencies.” “The state 911 department continues to investigate the cause of the outage,” the EOPSS said. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.” Earlier in the day, emergency call centers in Massachusetts were disrupted by a “major,” statewide outage. Due to the outage, state officials issued an emergency alert for cell phones around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. “Calls are not going through,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said of the 911 system. “We are in contact with the state and all relevant officials to work to resolve the issue.” Within the city of Boston, emergency officials said internal communications are functioning normally and each department can still contact partner agencies needed to respond. “We use the same (computer-aided dispatch) system, which works perfectly,” said James Hooley, Boston Emergency Services director. “Any information that is entered by either agency, if someone contacts the fire department, police or EMS and we need the other agency’s services, we message each other, we talk on the radio and help each other out.” The Brockton Fire Department also referenced the outage in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. That agency, like Boston, urged residents to use a fire alarm or a direct line to the fire or police department in an emergency. Brookline officials asked residents not to call 911 to “test” the system. “When you dial 911, we get a location and the number that called, but we are unable to communicate. The dispatch center is attempting to call back any numbers that call 911 through the executive line. Please DO NOT call 911 to test it as this will take time that must be spent returning other callers,” Brookline said in a warning to the public. Boston’s fire alarms are essentially telegraphs that send a signal in Morse code when triggered. They do not use telephone systems. A few years ago, Massachusetts experienced sporadic outages of 911. At the time, this was blamed on outages by Louisiana-based provider CenturyLink, which affected some Verizon customers.

NEEDHAM, Mass. —

A statewide 911 system outage in Massachusetts has ended, officials with the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety said.

“Massachusetts’ 911 system has been restored,” the agency announced on social media. “The public can now once again call 911 for emergencies.”

“The State Emergency Operations Center continues to investigate the cause of the outage,” the EOPSS said. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.”

Previously, there had been disruptions to the emergency call center in Massachusetts because a “major” power outage had occurred across the state.

Because of the power outage, state authorities issued an emergency alert for cell phones at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

911 outage alert received from WCVB employee

“The calls are not coming through,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said of the 911 system. “We are in contact with the state and all relevant authorities to work on a solution to the problem.”

In the city of Boston, emergency officials said internal communications are functioning normally and each department can continue to contact the partner agencies necessary to take appropriate action.

“We use the same (computer-aided dispatch) system, which works well,” said James Hooley, Boston Emergency Services director. “When one of the agencies inputs information, when someone contacts the fire department, police or EMS and we need the other agency’s services, we message each other, we talk on the radio and we help each other.”

The Brockton Fire Department also referenced the outage in a statement posted on social media on Tuesday. Like Boston, that department urged residents to use a fire alarm or a direct line to the fire department or police in the event of an emergency.

Brookline authorities asked residents not to call 911 to “test” the system.

“When you dial 911, we will receive a location and the caller’s number, but will not be able to communicate. Dispatch will attempt to call back all numbers calling 911 through the management line. Please do NOT call 911 to try this, as this will take time that we could otherwise spend calling back other callers,” Brookline said in an alert to the public.

The fire alarms in Boston are essentially telegraphs that send a signal in Morse code when triggered. They do not use telephone systems.

A few years ago, Massachusetts experienced sporadic emergency call outages. At the time, the blame was placed on outages by Louisiana-based provider CenturyLink, which also affected some Verizon customers.

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