A barricade on 42nd Street in Sammamish failed to open for the Redmond Fire Department Nov. 25, when emergency responders attempted to transport a resident from his nearby home to medical aid.

“After about a minute or so, we were backing up and turning around,” the patient, Alex Pfaffe, said.

Pfaffe, who called for help around 7:30 a.m. due to extreme back pain, lives around the corner from the barricade.

The barricade blocks a direct route, cutting through the Timberline and Hidden Ridge neighborhoods, from Sahalee Way to State Route 202. The city installed the barricade, an Opticom gate, several years ago. When working properly, it allows responders to open it remotely.

Thus far, it’s worked just fine — and as far as anyone can tell, the malfunction in late November seems to be a fluke, city interim Public Works Director John Cunningham said last week.

“I have never heard of anything remotely like this before,” Cunningham said. “It happens very, very infrequently.”

Supposedly, if the gate doesn’t open, responders have access to a Knox-Box, a secured key box allowing emergency personnel to open the gate manually.

But the Redmond Fire Department did not have the correct key to access the Knox-Box, which is why they had to reverse and take Sahalee Way to Route 202  — congested with morning commuters, per the usual — in order to make it to Redmond.

“If they had made that mistake on the way in, it would have taken even longer,” Pfaffe said.

The irony of the gate malfunctioning for Pfaffe, one of the residents who’d like to see it removed, is not lost on him.

Over the course of years, in building his home off Northeast 39th Lane, he’s experienced firsthand the issues the barricade presents.

Visitors, contractors and delivery truck drivers alike have been stuck on one side of the thing or the other, he said. Sometimes, it’s enough of an inconvenience that a person will give up and go home, he said.

The gate, installed as a temporary measure before the city incorporated, has been the subject of neighborhood tension for years. Many residents have asked the Sammamish City Council to take decisive action by either permanently retaining or removing it. The council, however, voted in mid-February to keep it in its place at least through 2016.

Though Pfaffe wasn’t thinking about the barricade issue as he was being transported, afterward he realized the mishap mirrored the exact argument he and others had been making for its removal.

One of the most outspoken residents for the gate’s removal, Greg Reynolds, said this incident confirms his concerns that the barricade blocks access on a public street and potentially interrupts emergency services.

What’s puzzling, Cunningham said, is King County crews, who maintain the city’s traffic signals and who installed the Opticom gate, went out last week to test it and it worked. The Redmond Fire Department had also gone back out to test the gate; it worked.

Eastside Fire and Rescue crews also tested the gate. It didn’t respond, but that turned out to be a wiring issue with the fire engine, Cunningham said. It’s since been repaired.

Cunningham thought a small power outage could have caused it, but Puget Sound Energy ruled that out, he said at the Dec. 8 City Council meeting.

Despite not knowing what caused the gate to malfunction, the city is taking action by installing another Knox-Box for the Redmond department and by installing a backup battery in case of a power outage.

The 42nd Street Opticom gate is one of two within Sammamish. The other, off Northeast 51st Street, isn’t used much, Cunningham said.