911 Emergency... Hold Please!

Imagine your house is on fire! You get everyone out and dial 911. The operator or a message puts you on hold. You watch the flames eat at your house as the seconds tick away. You are still on hold 45 seconds later and you know that help has not been dispatched. Your heart is pounding, your mind is racing and the anxiety is intolerable . Oh my God no one is coming yet and I am on hold. Do you continue to hold??? Ill bet the answer is no for most people. You try again!
Today's paper says that this is what we should expect if we call 911 according to John Balloni commissioner of 911 center. " There is no way any 911 center can staff enough people to handle all the calls that come in" he said. WHAT!!! We do not have enough people in the 911 center to handle the everyday volume of emergency calls. I don't recall Onondaga County telling us when they wanted to build the system, that it would not be able to handle the emergency calls coming into it. I think we may have questioned the expense. Could any other organization that receives tax money get away with this performance without government intervention? This comment begs the question what happens if there is a county wide emergency like a tornado or worse. Would the hold time be hours??? Time is important in fires, but in a medical emergency it is critical. A one or two minute delay can cost a life.
The answer Mr. Balloni gave indicates he thinks its not a fixable problem but the norm for the center. I would ask Mr. Balloni if we have enough dispatchers on staff to fill all the shifts he schedules. Does the center have the capacity to handle more calls if more staff were on. I would think so, because he states supervisors help when things back up. Obviously to the lay person it looks like scheduling more people would help. The management team at the center must think out of the box to solve this problem. The county and City of Syracuse should be investigating this situation to help solve the problems.
As a citizen I don't have expertise with the call center and how they presently function day to day. I do know as a citizen if its broke I expect someone to be working on fixing it. I also expect Mr Balloni that if I ever need 911, being put on hold would not be acceptable to me. It should not be acceptable to you as a public employee. I hope the Syracuse newspaper follows up on this problem and holds people accountable for fixing the problem. It is truly could be a matter of life or death if it is not resolved.