D.C. Public Service Commission to investigate 911 outage

WASHINGTON – The D.C. Public Service Commission will investigate the outage that affected the city’s 911 service Saturday afternoon.

The outage lasted about 23 minutes and affected the 911 system and its backup generator. Metropolitan Police said multiple electric surges knocked out power to the Unified Communications Center on Martin Luther King Avenue SE.

During the outage, police and fire were unable to communicate with 911, the Office of Unified Communications said.

D.C. Public Service Commission Chairwoman Betty Anne Kane said Pepco has been contacted about the incident.

Kane said there’s an ongoing investigation on Pepco’s reliability in particular neighborhoods, including the area near the Unified Communications Center in the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Avenue.

WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow Kate and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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