Comments on: News tip: How many ‘alarms’ in a fire?

By: lucy

lucy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:48:14 +0000

Wow, thanks for the excellent information!

By: aric

aric — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:15:47 +0000

you guys are over thinking this way too much

By: Safran

Safran — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:58:34 +0000

“…they were still reeling, as they allegedly stood amid the aftermath of three inches of the white stuff.”

According to a nearby motorist and passing pedestrian, anyway.

By: jg

jg — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:00:53 +0000

must have been a “desperate battle by [that city's] bravest against the killer blaze in bone-chilling cold.”

must have been.

By: Safran

Safran — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:36:38 +0000

Irv: I appreciate the correction. You are right. To it, I would only add the amplification that “The people died in the FATAL killer-crack-up.”

By: Irv Weinstein

Irv Weinstein — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:26:29 +0000

Steve: a correction. It’s not a “three alarm fire”. It’s a “three bell burner”. And if the emergency crews responding to it were involved in a fatal accident on the way, that would give you a “killer crack-up caused by a three bell burner”.

By: Safran

Safran — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:51:11 +0000

Z: I’ve done it, and it’s not hard. Often it’s just a matter of asking the fire department in the assignment desk call.

You can also get the info ahead of time - a good intern assignment. The answer will usually be “We tend to ring the second bell when we need more than X pieces.” Even if it’s an approximation, it’s a decent bit of info.

By: Z

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:29:11 +0000

It doesn’t help that every municipality has a different definition.

For example, Toledo had (any may still have) nothing beyond two alarms. The biggest fire I’d seen there, better than four battalions fighting it, was considered “two alarms +”

I think people subconciously know that when you get to two or more alarms, it’s a fairly significant fire. If that’s what you’re trying to get across, I think it works.

Trying to count equipment (and each type thereof–not all are the same…and some additional alarms are manpower only, but you don’t know how many are actually responding) would mean you’d need an entire segment to address that, and it would probably hose the flow of the show.

Just my two pfennig.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:19:47 +0000

How about “arraignment?” Or a “preliminary hearing?” The viewers have no idea what those terms mean. Most reporters couldn’t define them. Why do reporters use them in copy?