The president of Northern911 is apologizing for a service disruption that lasted almost two hours on Nov. 1 in Brantford and Brant County.
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Mike Shantz said Northern911 experienced an unanticipated service disruption between 5:32 am and 7:29 am that temporarily impacted its ability to manage 911 calls.
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“We acknowledge the understandable concern this situation caused among both residents and local authorities,” Shantz said in a statement released Friday. “Please accept our heartfelt apologies for the impact of this disruption.”
Northern911 provides 911 services to Brant-Brantford Paramedics, County of Brant Fire, Brantford Fire Department and Brantford Police Service.
The disruption occurred during planned maintenance on commercial power infrastructure. A power transfer switch failed, resulting in the unexpected shutdown of critical systems, Northern911 said in the statement.
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An additional software configuration issue made the backup infrastructure inaccessible.
“To warn similar incidents in the future, Northern911 has conducted a comprehensive audit of both the power distribution and configuration settings for all critical systems,” Shantz said in the statement. “Additionally, we have initiated maintenance on the affected infrastructure to improve power distribution and resilience.
“Moreover, we are ensuring our ability to access the backup infrastructure for enhanced preparedness.”
City and county officials have been made aware of the disruption.
“The County of Brant and the City of Brantford reassures residents that their health and safety is our top priority and as such, we take this incident very seriously, and remain committed to working with Northern911 to ensure that actions are taken to prevent another occurrence in the future,” county and city officials said in a joint statement issued Friday.
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“We understand Northern911 is working to implement preventive measures to avoid similar incidents in the future. “We have been assured that Nothern911’s commitment to providing reliable services is unwavering and they are putting additional corrective measures in place immediately.”
While 911 is still the most effective method to contact emergency services, in the unlikely event of a re-occurrence, the business lines for each emergency service can be used, listed on each agency website.
A comprehensive report on the incident has been provided by Northern911 and updates will continue to be provided as they become available, city and county officials said.
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