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A woman and her two young children survived a house fire on Cleveland's East Side after she stayed on the phone with a 911 dispatcher for about 15 minutes, giving her location over and over until firefighters reached the room and got the family out, according to the emergency recording of the call.

The fire broke out before dawn on Sept. 22, 2010. It started in an abandoned house and spread to the occupied home next door, where the woman and children were cut off by the flames, according to an account of the calls published by the public-safety trade site 911dispatch.com. Two homes were destroyed.

On the logging tape, the woman can be heard struggling to describe which side of the house was burning as the dispatcher pressed her, again and again, to calm down and stay on the line for the children. Firefighters are recorded entering the room and reaching the family near the end of the roughly 15-minute call.

The blaze drew several 911 calls, and at least one went unanswered for about six minutes, according to the same account. A neighbor who dialed in reached an automated message that said, "You have reached Cleveland 911. We are currently handling other emergencies. Please do not hang up." When a call-taker finally picked up, a dispatcher can be heard on the recording saying, "I don't know what's wrong, but they need to put some more people over there."

That remark about staffing drew questions from the firefighters' union and prompted an internal review by the department, the account said. Fire officials said they were examining how the calls were handled.

Local news outlets reported that the city's emergency medical services commissioner, Edward Eckart, followed the incident by sending an e-mail directive to dispatchers, instructing supervisors to fill in at the consoles when call-takers stepped away on breaks.

The recording was posted by 911dispatch.com with identifying details removed. The names of the family and the exact address were not released.