The Fond du Lac Fire Chief has been in contact with the Waukesha Fire Chief after a computer problem delayed the fire department’s response to a fatal fire last week. Officials say an error in a dispatch system caused a delay in the response to the fire of about five minutes. Two people died in the blaze and three people were injured. Fond du Lac Fire Chief Pete O’Leary says fire departments want to know what happened in Waukesha so they can learn from it and prevent it from happening elsewhere. “Providers want to make sure there is something that is preventable, identified from them (Waukesha Fire Department) that we make sure we have that dialed in as well,” O’Leary told WFDL news. “If it’s a glitch on the computer end, if it’s a glitch on the dispatching software, if it’s human error, just so we can learn from it.” In Waukesha records show firefighters told dispatchers they never received the initial alert. Police and fire officials say that’s never happened before and are investigating to try and determine if human error may be to blame.
