Has anyone actually tried to use 911?

cjewell

Bronze
Oct 11, 2004
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Had a major electrical problem in my condo. Sparks shooting out of the box and electricity noises. Literally shat my pants. Called 911 3x and they kept answering and hanging up. I literally gave up. Condo shut of the power and gas and waited for help from the owner.

Then another night I saw an incident in the Zona and tried calling and it wouldn’t even connect on my cell phone.

Anyways just wondered if anyone else tried using 911 and what was the responsivity?
 

chrisdr

Member
Oct 7, 2012
223
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I have called them on a few occasions and it has been excellent! I called and the fire truck was here within minutes (granted the station is only a few minutes away).
Are you in the zona? a house two doors down from us caught fire last week due to the power from the street being 250volts! I was lucky i was in at the time to shut it off, lost half our lightbulbs and a few other things before I made it to the breaker box though...
 

CristoRey

Welcome To Wonderland
Apr 1, 2014
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I seen a guy's truck catch fire down stairs one day. Neighbors called 911.
Fire fighters arrived in about 5 minutes and took care of business. Good stuff.
 

cjewell

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Oct 11, 2004
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No I'm in Gazcue. My girlfriend and her daughter were here and we started to smell rubber burning. We couldn't find the source so we evacuated. Then in the lobby once 911 kept hanging up on both us and the security I went back in with the security to find the source of the smell (probably stupid) and that's when we could hear sounds in the box and wall like I don't even know how to describe and sparking. But the sound was like like zzzzz, zzzzzz pop pop pop - I thought the thing was going to blow. That's when security shut the electricity and gas off. Whatever was going on ran straight across the wall and blew a microwave and an AC.

Power here is weird - when I had a restaurant in Sosua and electrician installed 220V plugs in the kitchen - several rice makers, coffee machines and 1 almost fire he decided to tell us that. The owner was telling me power surges all the time lead to damage and my girlfriend who was here said her TV exploded once because of a power surge.

I was excited about 911 being here but I think its good to also maybe have the direct emergency numbers for the fire department, police station etc.
I have called them on a few occasions and it has been excellent! I called and the fire truck was here within minutes (granted the station is only a few minutes away).
Are you in the zona? a house two doors down from us caught fire last week due to the power from the street being 250volts! I was lucky i was in at the time to shut it off, lost half our lightbulbs and a few other things before I made it to the breaker box though...
 

RockyM

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Jul 16, 2018
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I've visited DR....six times I recall, and we are retiring in DR in a couple years. Was curious about "911" service but never inquired. Good to know 1) it exists, and 2) it works well at least part of the time. I suspect though, as with everything, it depends on location...location...location.

I see electrical related calls seem to top the list, as expected. LOL
 

TropicalPaul

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Sep 3, 2013
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One of my staff collapsed at work recently and the manager called 911 repeatedly and it just rang and rang. She couldn't get an answer so eventually they put him in the back of a truck and took him to hospital. I've heard this from others as well, it's not the most reliable service.
 

jahjahwarrior

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Mar 14, 2017
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I have a friend who works there in Santiago. They are kept pretty busy but I get the impression that it's a real service that functions as best as they can. It'll get better.
 

RDKNIGHT

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Mar 13, 2017
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Works great.... I called when I saw two nitwits breaking into a car ... they arrived with in minutes..... then beat the thiefs to a pulp ... its also helps knowing the colonel and telling 911 its his house.
 

RockyM

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Jul 16, 2018
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Works great.... I called when I saw two nitwits breaking into a car ... they arrived with in minutes..... then beat the thiefs to a pulp ... its also helps knowing the colonel and telling 911 its his house.

Hah hah...guess it also depends on WHO you are
 

tee

Bronze
Sep 14, 2007
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Cabarete
I have been taken via 911 ambulance from Sosua to Santiago and the service was fantastic. I did not have to call 911 myself, it was the medical clinic that called so don't know what the time frame was between them receiving the phone call and the ambulance arriving. They got to Santiago very fast, about 1 hour and 10 minutes to the doorstep on Clinica La Union. As we were approaching Santiago my wife told me that there was a 911 paramedic on a motorbike stopping traffic to let us through all the red lights and to move on cars that were not giving way, (which I have noticed more and more recently that Dominicans are moving to the side of the road to let emergency services through as opposed to actually racing them!!). They were very polite and did not ask for one pesos, (everything was paid through my Dominican health insurance) but we all know what some people are like looking for 'tips'. All things considered, it was a very good service.
I have heard many very positive stories regarding the 911 service in the Sosua area from many other people. Just recently I was talking to someone I know that had a house fire in an area outside of town. The fire service arrived at his house minutes after as did the police and ambulance...a excellent response time. Unfortunately they lost a dog in the fire which can cause so much trauma and as they were leaving one of the fire fighters came up and said "really sorry about your dog". He was touched so much that someone would come up to him and say that. If this is the type of service we are getting in this area then this is a huge step forward.
 

sosuadr

Member
Aug 17, 2014
48
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I called speaking to them in Spanish for several minutes. Then upon telling them (when the conversation became more detailed) that English was my primary language and they switched to fluent English!
 

Riva_31

Bronze
Apr 1, 2013
2,533
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San Pedro de Macoris
I've visited DR....six times I recall, and we are retiring in DR in a couple years. Was curious about "911" service but never inquired. Good to know 1) it exists, and 2) it works well at least part of the time. I suspect though, as with everything, it depends on location...location...location.

I see electrical related calls seem to top the list, as expected. LOL

I never used and hope never use it, but first the 911 is still in development and do not cover all Dominican Republic, few weeks ago started the service here in San Pedro de Macoris. I know that basically is used and works for accidents and police help, maybe electrical problems in a bulding is not part of their list of services.
 

bigbird

Gold
May 1, 2005
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I never used and hope never use it, but first the 911 is still in development and do not cover all Dominican Republic, few weeks ago started the service here in San Pedro de Macoris. I know that basically is used and works for accidents and police help, maybe electrical problems in a bulding is not part of their list of services.

That is my understanding, I thought 911 was for Police, Fire, and medical emergencies. Shut off the electric and wait until you can have an electrician come out and do the repair. I doubt sending out a Paramedic will find out faster how to shut off the power than the person living there or building maintenance.

If i am not mistaken wasn't one of the reasons for registering of cell phone numbers years ago was to monitor unnecessary 911 calls?
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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that may explain the hang-ups when calling about household failures .. electrical

'responsivity'....is another matter....??
 

drstock

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Oct 29, 2010
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However, I understood that one of their responsibilities was to deal with noise complaints, which, while serious, hardly constitute "emergencies". Does anyone know if they still deal with these?
 

JD Jones

Moderator:North Coast,Santo Domingo,SW Coast,Covid
Jan 7, 2016
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However, I understood that one of their responsibilities was to deal with noise complaints, which, while serious, hardly constitute "emergencies". Does anyone know if they still deal with these?

I've never heard that. They have a dedicated number for reporting noise. 809 682 3151 x. 5036
 

bigbird

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May 1, 2005
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However, I understood that one of their responsibilities was to deal with noise complaints, which, while serious, hardly constitute "emergencies". Does anyone know if they still deal with these?

I've never heard that. They have a dedicated number for reporting noise. 809 682 3151 x. 5036

I am with you JD, I never heard it either. That dedicated noise pollution phone number was posted quite awhile back. If not mistaken I believe there was a dr1 poster who used the complaint phone number and got positive results.
 

drstock

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Oct 29, 2010
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I looked up the government 911 website, and, crazy as it may seem, here is the page where they state which noise nuisances can be reported (including churches!). https://911.gob.do/como-usarlo/ . However, it seems more responsible to use the number given above.