AT&T deploys Mobile Cellular Unit in DeKalb County to provide network access to first responders

December 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Two days after the explosion of an RV outside an AT&T transmission building in Nashville, 911 cell phone service has not yet been fully restored in much of Middle Tennessee including DeKalb County although progress has been made.

“In DeKalb County, AT&T provided and deployed a mobile cellular unit Saturday at our request to provide network access to first responders,” said Bradley Mullinax, Director of the DeKalb County E-911 Center.

“DeKalb 911 is utilizing a backup call notification system that will notify us when we have received a 911 call from a connected cell phone. We then call that phone back to determine the emergency. This has been extremely helpful in several situations already,” Mullinax said.

Due to the outage, anyone with an emergency needing to call 911 is urged to use a landline rather than a cell phone or call the DeKalb Central Dispatch non-emergency line at 615-215-3000 until further notice.

“911 professionals across the state have been working around the clock to restore services in Nashville but we still do not have a timeline on full restoration of services,” said Mullinax.

“The Tennessee Emergency Communications Board held conference calls with 911 districts Saturday to establish the extent of outages in each county. Everyone has been affected a little differently. Many different teams from AT&T have been activated across the country to render aid”.

“AT&T continues to provide updates to us multiple times during the day on the repairs and restoration of service,” Mullinax continued.

“This has been a very difficult time for 911 in Tennessee and we are doing our best to ensure the safety of our community. Please continue to use our non-emergency number at 615-215-3000 to reach our call center or simply call 911 from your home phone. Again, we are not receiving connected calls from cellphones or from voice over IP telephone services such as Comcast, Vonage, etc. With that being said, if your phone depends on an internet connection to make a call, then it is unlikely your call will be completed to 911. We would like to thank ATT for providing this mobile cell unit to keep our first responders connected,” Mullinax concluded.

December 26, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Possible human remains were found at the site of a Christmas eve house fire on Talley Road in the Blue Springs Community. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been called in to investigate.

DeKalb 911 received a call of a structure fire and dispatched members of the DeKalb County Fire Department at 9:15 p.m. Although county firefighters were on the scene within five minutes the home, already fully involved in flames, had collapsed and the blaze had spread to another home six feet away.

Fire crews were able to bring the blaze under control but the adjacent residence was extensively damaged. The owner was not present when the fire department arrived.

Members of the Short Mountain Highway, Main Station, Blue Springs, and Belk stations responded along with DeKalb EMS and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspected human remains were found in the home which was destroyed where the fire originated.

December 25, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

An AT&T outage related to the explosion in Nashville Christmas morning is causing issues with calling 911 from cellular phones in much of Middle Tennessee, including DeKalb County.

Due to the outage, anyone with an emergency needing to call 911 is urged to use a landline rather than a cell phone or call the DeKalb Central Dispatch non-emergency line at 615-215-3000 until further notice.

Bradley Mullinax, Director of the DeKalb County E-911 Center, and Charlie Parker, DeKalb Emergency Management Agency Coordinator, have issued the following statement.

“Due to the recent RV explosion in Nashville, all 911 traffic from cell-phones and wireless devices has been affected. The explosion in Nashville impacted the AT&T network operations center resulting in the inability for 911 calls to be routed to the appropriate county. In addition, we have noticed that all AT&T cell phones are down for calls and texts”.

“At this time, we do not know when service will be restored to the Nashville center. However, service technicians are working to route traffic through a redundant network center located at other locations in the state. We want to stress this is not a local problem with our communications center or our local telephone providers. 911 calls placed from landline or traditional home telephones have not been affected and continue to work as usual. If you have an emergency, please utilize a landline or phone or call our non-emergency line at 615-215-3000. We will continue to monitor the situation in Nashville, and we will update local media when we receive notifications”.

“Finally, this outage will not impact our ability to dispatch local responders to your location, but again please use our 10 digit non-emergency number for any public safety request at 615-215-3000,” the statement concluded.

According to Metro Nashville Police, “MNPD, FBI, and ATF are investigating Friday’s intentional 6:30 a.m. explosion of an RV outside 166 2nd Avenue North downtown. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic downtown is restricted as the investigation continues”.

“Officers responded to a shots fired call on 2nd Avenue at approximately 5:30 a.m. Friday morning. The department’s Hazardous Devices Unit was called to check an RV. As those officers were enroute, the vehicle exploded outside an A-T-&-T transmission building. Multiple buildings on 2nd Avenue were damaged, some extensively”. Three people reportedly suffered minor injuries.

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