It may not seem like a big deal, but for Alex Castro, seeing a Miami-Dade fire truck turning around in the cul-de-sac in front of his parents’ home was reason to worry.
“It brings back the fear that if we do need 911 services for a life-threatening emergency, we might lose precious time,” he said.
Alex said minutes later, he saw the truck responding to a call for help from a home in the neighborhood next door.
“Which is typically mistaken for our house,” he said.
The incident reminded him of what happened about 10 years ago when his father needed emergency services. Back then, he said first responders mistakenly went to a home inside that same gated community, which is located on the other side of a wall that borders his parents’ home. After Hurricane Irma, Alex reached out to NBC 6 Responds when he was having trouble getting the county to fix a damaged sidewalk near the home.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said in 2017.
Back then, the county told NBC 6 the home was not properly mapped on their GIS or geographical information system, adding that the issue was rare. They revised the map to properly reflect the home’s location. Alex was relieved until he recently saw the fire truck turning around through his Ring doorbell camera. That’s when he decided to contact NBC 6 Responds once again.
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“Whatever platform they’re using, to make sure it’s updated,” he said.
In an email, a county spokesperson told NBC 6 Miami-Dade Fire Rescue reviewed their mapping system and verified that if an emergency vehicle were dispatched to Alex’s parents’ home, it would be routed to reach the home by turning off Coral Way, onto 104th Place and not through the gated subdivision next door.
The county also said without specifics like a vehicle number or an address of the final destination for the fire truck Alex saw, they were unable to determine why a truck was in the neighborhood on that day.
