Some callers attempting to reach Douglas County 9-1-1 on Thursday night got a busy signal instead due to a high volume of calls related to fireworks complaints.
The Douglas County Emergency Communications Center acknowledged Friday that reports of a "fat busy signal" was encountered by some wireless callers at 9:30 p.m. due to the call volume at that particular time.
The Communications Center processed 434 fireworks-related calls on Thursday as compared to 171 such calls in during the same time period in 2017, according to a county official.
RELATED: OPD responded to more than 450 fireworks calls
"The Emergency Communications Center’s 9-1-1 telephone system during this time period operated as designed, and landline calls continued to ring into the 9-1-1 Center," said David Sleeter, director of Douglas County Emergency Communications.
In comparison, Sarpy County Communications, which has seven employees working at any given time, said it received more than 200 calls between 8 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday; and Omaha Police responded to about 450 fireworks calls from June 25 to July 5 this year.
