'All Operators Are Busy:' Neighbors In Crown Heights Put Out Fire While Trying To Get 911 Operator

A fire broke out behind a home in the Crown Heights neighborhood in northwest Oklahoma City Tuesday night.

Neighbors say they all jumped into action to put out the flames but wonder why it took so long to get help.

“It was very scary,” said Melissa Johnson. “That’s the scariest thing I think I’ve ever been through.”

Johnson said she smelled what she thought was a bonfire next door Tuesday night around 11:30 p.m. She soon found out her neighbor’s fence was on fire and woke them up.

“Look how close this was to the gas meter,” she said pointing out the charred fence next to a gas meter. “This is what I was spraying.”

Standing on a chair looking over her fence, she tried to put out the fire with a water hose. The neighbor in the back, Scott Pitts did the same when he saw his rick of wood on fire.

“I came back, and this was fully engulfed, red-hot embers,” Pitts said. 

While neighbors were working with water hoses to put out the flames, they also worked the phones to get help.

“I haven't been in that situation where I was in a real hurry to try and get 911,” Pitts said. “I got an all operators are busy. At that point, I’m just like ‘What do I do?’” 

Johnson says she couldn’t get through to an operator either.

“It was the strangest thing, it was almost like it went to another number,” Johnson said. “I would hang up and it would call back and say, ‘If you are really trying to get a hold of 911 and there's truly an emergency press one’ and so I’d press one and get back in that cycle again.”

“It was very frustrating, I was kind of in panic mode because we were trying to get this out,” Pitts added. 

Johnson’s daughter finally got through and they say the fire department came 20 minutes later after the fire was out. “They did indicate there had been some storms and their system had been down and it was taking some time to recover,” Johnson said.

However, Oklahoma City Police say the 911 system was not down Tuesday night. According to police, when multiple calls come in at the same time, callers will be sent to a recording. The important thing to remember, they say, is to not hang up and call back or you will be put in at the end of the line.

These neighbors say there should be a backup plan and are just thankful they all came together to put out what could have been a dangerous situation.

“Very happy that we got it put out,” Pitts said. “I did not sleep well last night because I kept thinking it could happen again.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.