TAMPA, Fla. — A hardware failure on Sunday left part of Tampa Fire Rescue's dispatch without computer access for three days, according to Tampa Fire Chief Barbara Tripp.
"We did have a system failure with one of the servers," she said. "The only thing that is different now is instead of everything being digital and typing on the computer, it's a little manual labor where we have to write some things down."
Speaking to ABC Action News Wednesday night, Tripp told us they tried to fix the broken server. And when that didn't work, they had to prep a backup server.
"So, we had another server that we had actually put in place to get it up again. Meaning you had to put in all the addresses, you have to put in all the phone numbers, you have to put in a lot of street numbers, you have to put a lot of information into the system," said Tripp.
Thursday morning, Tripp echoed to the Tampa City Council what she told us the night before: that the server was back up.
"It went live as of last evening," she said.
She added that the department is working on upgrading its existing computer system, which is something the Tampa Fire Union President Nick Stocco claims they've been calling for, for years.
"We've been outdated since 1998, it's going to become inoperable, it's going to crash, and it did, it did a couple [of] days ago," he said.
But even in the face of these fixes, there are still questions about the impact this system crash had on response times.
"So, to be honest with you, that is something I would have to investigate, but when we talk about, as far as response times, there has not been a gap in service," said Tripp.
On Thursday, council members also questioned why the backup server wasn't already ready to go in the event of a system crash. And they asked how Tampa Fire Rescue would prevent that from happening again in the future.
"So, with something so critically important as this, I would think that we would have redundancies so you wouldn't have to go to a manual backup system. That you would be able to manually switch over to something like that. So, as we build out that new system, I agree with Councilwoman [Lynn] Hurtak," said Councilman Alan Clendenin.
"We will make sure that that is into play," said Tripp.
This system failure comes on the heels of two major fires in the city this week. And at a time when the Tampa Fire Rescue system as a whole has been the subject of scrutiny from the community.
"I do think there is a desperate need for a lot more policing and a lot more fire protection out here," said Lesem Ramos, who lives in the Terrace Park neighborhood.
The Tampa Fire Chief has said that since she took her position in November of 2021, she added an additional engine to the North Tampa area, hoping to provide relief to that area.
But the Tampa Fire Union says more is needed.
Stocco told us that in 2022, Tampa Fire Rescue responded to more than 90,000 calls and he claimed that a city-wide master plan for the department would help get them on the right track.
"We've been pushing for a public safety master plan since 2019 and that's in hopes to have the progress outlined because of the deficits we have, how we made it here, we're so far behind," he said.
The union is calling for more firefighters, more stations and better equipment.
It is important to note that the Fire Chief is working on getting the department more resources, including more ambulances and engines.
The city council will be holding a workshop with Tampa Fire Rescue, the Tampa Fire Union and a consulting firm on Aug. 3 to talk about how the department is really doing and how it can be improved.
