Two Alarm Fire?
Question here for the blogging public: Does a "five-alarm fire" mean that five fire engines show up? IF SO-- there was a two-alarm fire just across the street from me this evening.
I was making myself dinner (a new and fascinating hobby- steak!) when I saw flashing red lights out of the corner of my eye. Something about the lights just struck pure terror in me; as in, 'What's wrong? Something is wrong.' I looked out the window just to see the second fire engine show up and the firefighters start talking to the guy living across the street (the unit with the light on in my previous post). Some firefighters rushed into the building, and before long, I could see them steadying a ladder against the chimney of his building and then messing around up there (flashlights, spraying stuff, fans; firefighter stuff). My dog, cat, and I all crept upstairs quietly, turned the lights off, and looked down (for a better view) at the action below. The dog and cat both "stood" looking out- putting their front legs on the window sill for a better look outside... I wish I had a picture of it. :-)
Anyway, it was a simple chimney fire and the engines left after 45 minutes. Scary, nonetheless.
posted by Sarah @ 9:29 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
James says that a five alarm fire means that five fire stations were alarmed to come to the fire. He says he could be wrong though!
I decided to make tostados one night and put some corn tortillas in some hot grease. Ooops, I forgot about them and when I walked back into the kitchen there were some major flames! Thank goodness we had a fire extinguisher! The fire men came and blew all the smoke out of the house. Boy, those extunguishers make a huge mess. The powder goes all over the house.
No it doesn't mean either. Typically each responding department will have 'run cards' that describe predetermined responses to a typical situation. So, if we get to a fire (with one engine) and it proves to be a 'worker', then the Incident Commander will call for a 'First Alarm' or maybe a 'Second Alarm'. The dispatcher will call the units listed on his run card, which could vary from town to town (so in some towns it could be 5 engines in some only 2). A Five Alarm assignment will generally bring all units (which will be way more than 5 pieces of apparatus).
In my town, a second alarm will generally have all 4 of our trucks, plus at least 4 more from neighboring towns.
Thanks for the info. I guess it was just a lowly one-alarm fire, then?
Well, it was a good guess on my part. ;)
James, I think we both had good guesses. Since Robert B. is a real live fire fighter, he probably knows more than both of us combined!
Craziness!
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