[Scan-DC] [OT] Four-Alarm Fire in Baltimore Last Night

[oldsdoug at hotmail.com]

Hey Andy,

Yes, that's the general idea... and of course those pre-defined responses may (probably!) differ from one jurisdiction to another.  And it would be a different collection of stuff for a building fire than a brush fire... for example, you wouldn't normally need a ladder truck on a brush fire (or a brush truck on a building fire.)

Most of the ECCs screen their callers to try to determine what exactly is going on... how strong is the odor, any flames showing, high-rise building, alarm bells, etc... and they may base the equipment they send at least partially on the information from the caller... for example, on an alarm bells call, they may not send the whole "box" assignment (4 engines, 2 ladder trucks, 1 squad, 2 ambulances, 2 command officers) but only send one engine and one truck.  But for the same building, if they have alarm bells, an odor, and an activated smoke detector, they'd send more stuff or the entire box assignment.

Also, Montgomery county will dispatch a RID or rapid intervention dispatch, right after the "first alarm", if they think they have a working building fire... not sure what that consists of, let's say an engine, ladder truck and ambulance), those guys are to do any rescue of personnel that might get in trouble, or hit a spot that flares up... I'm sure somebody else can explain that better.

Confused?  :)

Regards,

Doug

> From: w4jecom at w4je.com
> To: scan-dc at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [Scan-DC] [OT] Four-Alarm Fire in Baltimore Last Night
> Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:35:23 -0400
>
> David, Mike,
>
> Thanks for the feedback. To summarize (to make sure I'm clear on this), an
> "alarm" is a pre-defined response effort that is a combination of equipment
> from one or more stations.
>
> Regards,
> Andy
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