A statewide 911 outage has put dozens of dispatcher offices out of commission as residents are now being forced to directly dial any emergency service they need.
The outage was first reported Tuesday afternoon in Massachusetts and impacts some 45 towns and cities across the state.
“Currently the statewide 911 system is down. Calls are not going through,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said according to WFXT. “We’ve been in touch with the state and the relevant officials to work on getting this resolved.”
Those calling 911 will not receive an answer, although officials are working to bring the service back online and find a cause for the disruption.
A safety alert was pushed to cell phones around the state shortly after the system’s failure warning about the outage and telling residents to expect “delays” in any emergency response, WWLP reports.
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Nearby Rhode Island and other neighboring states appear to be totally unaffected by the outage.
Now, local emergency services are scrambling to get their contact information out to civilians.
The Boston Fire Department pointed residents to fire boxes, which when activated will summon help from the nearest station.
The current 911 system is down statewide,if you have an emergency and need assistance pull your nearest Fire Box, or call the Boston Fire Department at
617-343-2880. You can also get assistance by going to your nearest Firehouse. pic.twitter.com/bv5xWSddz9— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) June 18, 2024
Do you have a plan if 911 goes down in your area?
While Boston itself is dotted with fire boxes that will link those in need with first responders, other cities and towns have no such contingency measure.
Local fire and police services are also warning residents about the outage and posting their own direct numbers.
“Please note that calling 911 will result in your phone ringing and ringing with no one picking up,” a Facebook post by the Granby Fire Department reads.
While 911 is simple to remember even in a stressful or dire situation, the phone number of local first responders are typically not as simple to memorize. Residents are encouraged to find and write down the numbers of their local services.
The situation in Massachusetts is eerily familiar to a widespread 911 outage that occurred in April across multiple states.
The outage on April 10 impacted cities and towns in South Dakota, Texas, Nebraska and Nevada.
Landline phones were able to get though to emergency services in some of the outage locations, but most cell phones were simply unable to do so.
At the time, it was speculated that the April outage may have been the result of a cyberattack or ransomware scheme.
