Officials in Lanark County, west of Ottawa, are investigating the failure of their 911 system last Friday.
Carl Welk, 70, was clearing the yard at Guthrie United Church in the village of Clayton when he suddenly collapsed. A witness ran across the street to the Munro home for help.
Margaret Munro called 911. “I dialed and it rang and nobody answered. I dialed again and no answer,” says Munro. “I was desperate because I thought the man could be saved you know.”
Someone on-scene called the cell phone for the local Fire Chief Art Brown. Chief Brown was able to use his radio to communicate directly with dispatch.
Welk, a retired teacher, did not survive. It is not clear if a quicker response could have saved him.
911 calls in this area are dispatched through the OPP in North Bay.
The OPP says the problem did not originate with them.
It is not yet clear how widespread the outage was.
CTV's Natalie Pierosara will have more on this story tonight at six.
