The city is changing how it handles 911 emergency calls for fires reversing a nearly decade-old policy instituted under the Bloomberg administration.

As of this past Monday, 911 operators began transferring callers with fire emergencies directly to borough-based dispatchers, instead of asking for a specific address.

A spokeswoman for the fire department said the change will mean more accurate information about fires.

“We expect this will improve our responses to fires by having fire alarm dispatchers speak immediately with callers — quickly getting more accurate information about the fire and the location of any trapped occupants, and reducing call processing time,” said FDNY spokeswoman Sophia Kim.

That wasn’t the case in October 2013, when Sister Denise Martin of the St. Joseph Hill Convent on Staten Island placed a frantic call to 911. She still remembers struggling to tell the 911 operator her location.

“The woman on the other end of the phone kept saying, ‘Ma'am please calm down. Can you just tell me where you're located? Can you tell me the cross streets?’” Martin recalled.  “I said, ‘Please help us. We have a fire here, you know.”

At that time, 911 dispatchers were required to ask callers where the emergency was before they asked what the emergency was. Now 911 operators first ask what is your emergency, and when it's a fire, the call is transferred immediately to a fire dispatcher in the borough. This reduces the call processing time.

The change does not impact 911 calls for police or medical emergencies.

Union president and Battalion Chief Jake Lemonda told WNYC that it's about time.

“For many years now, the Fire Officers Association has been documenting literally thousands of erroneous calls and it's always been our position that the system was flawed,” said Lemonda.

As for Sister Denise, whose story we first told in 2014 — she's pleased with anything that will make the system faster.