Nassau fire dispatch computers down briefly

Computer screens flickered to blank for about two minutes afternoon at Nassau County's fire dispatch center in Westbury, authorities said.

Dispatchers temporarily switched to a backup communications system during the outage, which started at about 4:05 p.m., and technicians fixed the computer problem that caused the glitch, said Timothy Placilla, an assistant chief in the fire marshal's office.

During the outage, firecom relayed one call from Woodmere over the phone to counterparts in Hewlett to dispatch for that ambulance call.

The county firecom provides dispatches for 41 out of the 71 fire departments in Nassau, with the remainder dispatching for themselves.