Where N is a number (I think 1-5).
N is basically how many fire stations were called to the fire. A four-alarm fire, for instance, means that the alarm rang in four fire stations in the area. Obviously, you won’t have four stations respond to a grease fire in your kitchen. Likewise, your neighborhood station would need help with a fire in, for instance, the top three floors of a large apartment building.
I believe it’s how many times they call for backup to help fight the fire.
When the men and equipment on the scene decide they need more help, they call in another crew, which may or may not be from the same local, depending on the resources of the community. When the second crew isn’t enough, they may call for a backup third alarm and fourth alarm and so on.
“The one-l lama
Is a priest.”
The two-l llama is a beast.
Two words.
Irv Weinstein.
/hijack
I wonder if there is a classification above a 5-alarm fire.
For example I would guess 9/11 surpassed a 5-alarm fire. More of a “send everything within 50 miles” sort of disaster.
Yes, you can have more than five alarms. When I was a teenager, my father was on the volunteer fire department in our rural community. A lightning strike in the woods started a fire that spread very fast. We called in three other volunteer fire departments and three fire departments from nearby towns, making a total of seven alarms.
And I would bet a silk pajama, there’s no such thing as a three-l lama…
You forgot tanawanda
Declan
In the book American Ground, William Langewische says that the 1993 WTC bombing was a sixteen-alarm event.
adn a three-l lllama is written by a dyslexic.
Municipalities have attempted to standardize the complement of equipment dispatched to an alarm based on type. Local boxes involve alarm investigation or no threat to life. Tactical boxes are typically single family dwellings, multiple family dwellings under 10K SF, and small commercial structures under 10K SF. A box alarm is a multi-family dwelling, or commercial occupancy over 10K SF.
Based on one system, a tactical brings 2 engines and a rescue on the first alarm assignment.* A box brings two or three engines, one or more rescues, and one or more ladders.*
*Or may be modified based upon the specific occupancy. For example, a box dispatch would be set up calling additional tankers for a rural setting with no municipal water, and specialty units such as a HazMat and decon for a commercial chemical manufacturer. With a garden-style apartment building, more ladder companies are wanted for additional alarm assignments, as the prime interest is life safety, e.g. evacuation.
Usually, once a job goes beyond 2 alarms, we’re in surround and drown mode, everyone we could get out is out, and we’re protecting exposures.
Here is an older thread on the subject.
Where does the term “general alarm fire” fit into this? I take that to mean that all off duty firefighters are called in and everything available is thrown at it. At least, that’s what it seems to mean when the media reports a large fire as “general alarm”.
Whoa - you lost me there. What is “10K SF”? Is that square feet?
Tonawanda. There is a recent thread about Irv and his fires somewhere.