Posted: 5/17/2006 8:09:07 AM EDT
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When I hear something like "and this morning, a 3 alarm fire broke out at an apartment complex..." on the radio, what does "3 alarm" (or 2 alarm, or 4 alarm, etc.) mean? I assume it's some kind of measure of the severity of the blaze, but what exactly does it mean? --Mike |
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Rather than the incident commander saying "send me two more engines and a truck" they can simply say "dispatch a second alarm" and they know how many more trucks and firefighters he is going to have show up. My department doesn't really do "alarms" as after a second alarm we're going to be calling mutual aid. |
Same as ours; but we would request "second page for more manpower/equipment", then move to "mutual aid, tanker/engine/full response" depending on what we need. Each separate call would be translated as "2-alarm/3-alarm", etc. by the drones in the media. And they would get it wrong, to boot. Larry |
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The number of alarms corresponds to the number and type of apparatus dispatched to the fire, which is directly proportional to the size of the fire, or conditions of heat, cold, difficulties of fighting the fire ect. Many cities or fire districts operate on a 10 alarm system, and each city or town knows how many "alarms" they can call before mutual aid is required to keep their city or town covered. The mutual aid responses are automatic and predetermined so there is no question what is available for equipment. A first alarm(transmitted box) in my city gets three engines, one ladder company, one medic truck, and a deputy chief. A "working fire" would get an additional engine and ladder company. A second alarm or any further alarms would get two more engines and one more ladder company per. We can handle up to 3 alarms before the city is completely depleted of fire resources and out of town companies would be covering our stations as things progressed. The responces are pre determined so the deputy/chief knows exactly what he is getting for equipment and can stage them accordingly and who is covering the stations. A special call can always be made for certain circumstances, such as more ladder companies for rescue purposes(high life hazard like apartment buildings, hotels) or a hazmat responce for a hazmat situation, additional engine companies for relay pumping where water mains won't support the volume of water needed and it must come from another source further away. I've been to a fire scene where water was drafted from the ocean and relay pumped almost two miles to keep 9 burning triple decker houses under control. |
Even fairly large departments can start calling for mutual aid in short order. Depending on where in town the fire is something as little as three alarms in Omaha will have them start mutual aiding for units to move up. |
We have, total; 1 squad 2 engines 1 tanker 1 brush truck 1 equipment truck (water, airpacks, gear) A small, rural volunteer department, we are. Larry |