VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A 911 dispatcher sent firefighters to the wrong restaurant early Wednesday, causing a seven-minute response delay that may have been enough to cause the restaurant that was on fire to be destroyed, city officials said.
No one was injured in the fire.
The initial call came in at 8:23 a.m., according to Gwen Cowart, director of the Virginia Beach department of communications and information technology.
The caller reported a fire at the Wendy's on the corner of Baxter and Princess Anne roads, but the dispatcher mistakenly selected a different Wendy's when scrolling through the computerized list of the chain's restaurants in that part of the city.
By the time firefighters got to the right restaurant, it was destroyed.
Investigators traced the source of the fire to a malfunctioning piece of grease-handling equipment, and Battalion Chief Mike Wade said there was no way to tell if the seven-minute delay would have made a difference for firefighters battling the blaze.
The city apologized for the error in a statement issued Wednesday, and Cowart said the unidentified dispatcher will undergo ``appropriate training and disciplinary action.''
