“Dear PoPville,
DC Fire and EMS arrived on our block (across from Hechinger Mall in NE) on 5/25. They asked our neighbors across the street if there was a fire at their home, and when our neighbors confirmed everything was fine, DCFEMS went across the street and broke into our building by forcibly opening the front door. I wasn’t home at the time, but everyone else was and they all swear that no one knocked or rang the doorbell at the front for any unit. They just went and broke in, and told one of the residents that they had “the wrong address” (and they refused to answer any questions beyond that). There was never a fire here.
In February or March of this year, my wife called 911 because a severely inebriated person (from the known trap house next door) kept trying to break our front door down. The cops never showed so I took my dog out with me and chased him off. When I approached our council member for Ward 5, they connected me with the MPD commander for 5D who confirmed that DC 911 mislabeled our call as “low priority.”
I can’t believe this keeps happening. The craziest part is that I’m very lucky in both of these stories – I know multiple lives have been lost because DC 911 constantly screws up addresses and calls like they did for us. People need to know that when you call 911 in DC, you’re better off handling it yourself.”