CHICAGO (AP) -- Tapes of calls made to the city's 911 center show firefighters responded within minutes to a deadly fire that killed three children and a teenager, emergency officials said.
But after reviewing nearly three hours of tapes, they said Monday that questions remained about a dispatcher's response to one of the 19 calls.
Firefighters were sent to the house Friday within 48 seconds of the first 911 call at 11:25 p.m., said Ron Huberman, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. The firefighters arrived at the house within two minutes and 38 seconds of the first call, he said.
The call in question was the third to come into the emergency center, officials said. The veteran dispatcher apparently hung up on the caller because she thought it was a prank.
``I don't know what that dispatcher was thinking,'' Huberman said. ``It was not handled in the professional manner that the public expects.''
Officials will try to determine if the dispatcher's actions merit disciplinary action. She does not have any blemishes on her record, Huberman said.
The fire killed the three children of the Rev. Dwayne Funches and his wife, Emily: 15-year-old Dwayne Artchello Funches Jr., 7-year-old Travis Mack Funches, and 14-month-old Dione Funches. A fourth child, 12-year-old Cedric Langston, the Funcheses' godchild, also died. The children were home alone while the Funches were at a prayer service at their church, the New Grace Memorial Missionary Baptist Church.
The cause of the blaze remained under investigation Monday.
