Sporadic Statewide 911 Outage Affects Berkshires and Beyond

The 911 system has been sporadically out of commission statewide Friday and affecting most of Berkshire County.

iBerksires.com reports the Massachusetts State Police released a statement shortly before 7 a.m. encouraging residents to call their local public safety departments directly instead of using the emergency reporting system. The issue was affecting both cellular and landline service.

Shortly after 1:30, MSP released an update saying the issue had not been resolved and encouraged residents to contact the local agency needed.

Cell phones buzzed throughout the county about noon with notifications about the problem from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and a second alert was sent at 1:36 p.m.

Pittsfield shortly afterward released a statement saying the outage has no impact on its system and residents there should continue calling 911.

North Adams, the next largest community that also runs its own dispatch center, has been affected.

State police said if one cannot find the local number to call 508-872-2508 and tell the dispatcher the exact location of the emergency, including city or town, and they will connect to the correct department.