Portland’s fireworks hotline overwhelmed on holiday

PORTLAND – Portland’s Fourth of July hotline was supposed to let residents report illegal fireworks and give police better leads for enforcement.

But as it turns out, the new hotline – 503-823-BOOM – may have been less boom and more bust.

Of 7,276 calls to the hotline from July 1 through early July 5, just 1,386 – or fewer than 1 in 5 – was completed. The rest were either turned away because the line was overloaded or the caller hung up while on hold.

Fire officials say they weren’t prepared for the demand and may make changes next year. Some residents say officials should have done more to make the hotline accessible.

“We thought it was a great idea. I think we hit two of the goals that we set out for,” said Lt. Rich Tyler, a spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue. “Is there room for improvement? Always.”

Six officers were assigned to respond to hotline complaints July 4. Officers issued 84 citations totaling $57,000 for the whole fireworks season, compared with an annual average for the previous two years of 141 citations totaling $75,000.

Despite the high share of incomplete calls, Tyler said the hotline did meet a goal of keeping Portlanders from calling the city’s emergency number to report illegal fireworks. Peak-hour calls to that number dropped by about 350 compared with Independence Day 2014.

That, in turn, freed 911 dispatchers to focus on high-priority calls.

Portland Fire & Rescue launched the hotline July 1 and, for the vast majority of the time, calls were rerouted to the nonemergency line. The city spent $447.50 configuring the hotline.

Fire officials said they don’t know how many more employees or phone lines would have been needed to handle the call volume. They’ll work with the Bureau of Emergency Communications and the Bureau of Technology Services next year to come up with a new plan, he said.

“We’d love to have a 100 percent completion rate,” he said. “But is that possible? We don’t know.”

They’ll have to weigh the cost of employee overtime, for one thing, against the benefit to taxpayers.

But he chuckled when asked if the city’s first year with the hotline proved more boom or bust.

“Everything has to start somewhere,” he said. “I’m going to call it 823-BOOM.”