UM Dispatch What Fire?

[VolFFJohn]

Early today we got paged out for a combine fire with part of the field on fire. We get to the house of the person who called it in and started heading in the direction of where the fire was but don’t find it. So we keep looking but find nothing. A short time later the first truck talks to whose tractor it was and it turned out to nothing. The farmer that called it in thought it was smoking. Don’t you just love it when it’s nothing.

[hwoods]

You're not alone.......

You're dispatched for an Automatic Alarm, hit the street, get rolling good, then dispatch calls and says that the Alarm Company called back, and it's a false activation. Happens to us Daily. Stay Safe....

[MalahatTwo7]

A couple of nights ago we got paged to a car fire. We rolled up on the approximate place that the vehicle was "located" at. Then kept on going, there was a red T-bird parked on the side of the hi-way in the place that it's been in for the previous 4 days and very broken down. About 150 metres south was Toyota pick up truck, so we rolled down to it.. Nope no fire here and then we carried on to our south end, just in case. Nothing seen nothing heard. We dispatched another unit to double check the T-bird.

As it turns out, it was the reported "car fire", and there had been a small fire inside that the guys hit it with a FE - fire out 'n overhauled. We missed it with the Engine because of the already smoked glass and no visible flames/smoke coming from anywhere, plus the fact it had been there for several days.

It was labled as "suspicious" and eventually towed away. The truck as it turned out stolen, so we got a "double score" for that one, I guess.

[Dave1105]

Re: You're not alone.......

Originally posted by hwoods
You're dispatched for an Automatic Alarm, hit the street, get rolling good, then dispatch calls and says that the Alarm Company called back, and it's a false activation. Happens to us Daily. Stay Safe....

Our SOP's don't allow us to return from an alarm call without first getting on scene and sighting the alarm ourselves*, even if we recieve further information en route that it's a false activation (Which, like you, is a daily occurance). Time and time again we find that staff at the places that have FIP's will just treat the alarm as a nuisance.... they won't investigate it at all. They'll just go straight to the panel and try to reset it. If it wont reset, they'll just isolate it and call to try and get us cancelled.

Problem is, the reason it's not resetting is because their actually is a Fire, DUH! So generally speaking we will just ignore such information given to us en route... or we might downgrade our supporting appliances.

We also have big problems with evac systems, most places (like retirement homes, hotels etc.) will have them turned off by default. So even though the alarm has activated, the evac system hasn't.... so while a bell might be ringing, nobody in the place knows what it means. We've had a case just recently where an elderly lady fell asleep with her heater on, which set her curtains on fire, which in turn set the whole room on fire. We arrive on scene to find that nobody in the 150 person+ home had been evacuated.... plus nobody had even checked the surrounding area for signs of fire. The old lady in her room suffered burns and smoke inhalation.... the fire could've easily been tackled quickly with the extinghuisher outside her room by a staff member in a matter of seconds from the alarm activation and she would've had little more than a singed curtain... added to that if the fire was a little more intense the fact that the evac system was turned off probably would've resulted in the death of a few elderly people.

The problem is, the law says they have to have an evac system, it just doesn't say it has to be on.... idiots.

* We have to physically site the operating detector before calling a false alarm over the radio.

[MalahatTwo7]

Re: Re: You're not alone.......

Originally posted by Dave1105
Our SOP's don't allow us to return from an alarm call without first getting on scene and sighting the alarm ourselves*, even if we recieve further information en route that it's a false activation
* We have to physically site the operating detector before calling a false alarm over the radio.

Yep, we have one of those to at the Aerie Resort Bed and Breakfast. Summer time is a "regular" occurance of AFA falsies. Usually due to humidity in one of the towers. However, this past year we only had 2 or maybe 3 rather than the 6 or 7, so either they disabled the alarms in the towers or else they improved the system.... wonder which it is?

[explr985]

Re: You're not alone.......

Originally posted by hwoods
You're dispatched for an Automatic Alarm, hit the street, get rolling good, then dispatch calls and says that the Alarm Company called back, and it's a false activation. Happens to us Daily. Stay Safe....

Don,t feel bad, happens everyday here, city and county. The 4 and 5 times a day highrise alarms are always fun. The best is Cyrstal Towers, better know in the dept. as Cyrstal Toilets, among others that I propably shouldn't post here. Belive me, don't go inside there.

[AFD368]

Automatic Fire Alarms

We have the same problem, false automatic fire alarms.
We have an apartment complex, for elderly and/or handicap persons, and answered 9 false automatic alarms in a six day period. Needless to say, the supervisory personnel finally got the alarm straightened out, after we threatened to bill them for our response(s).

We also have a group home, for mentally handicapped persons, that we receive numerous automatic fire alarms from. Most of the time, these are burnt food on the stove and handled by the staff. We still have to respond, but these calls are beginning to become routine, so we don't get alot of firefighters responding. The fear that sets in all of us is that sometime, this could be a working structure fire, with persons trapped and we would be scratching our behinds for manpower.

Then there is the two Adult Care Facilities we cover. Between the alarm malfunctions, and the residents who "accidently" pull the alarm boxes, we probably respond to these facilities 30 to 40 times a tear or more.

We do have a good fire safety and prevention program, and go to all of these facilities annually to assist in the evacuation plans with the residents and staff. We hold annual drills at all of these places and critique the drills with the residents and staff immediately after the drill.

And YES, we do have to visually confirm all automatic fire alarms.
We never turn any equipment back unless directed to do so by an officer who may arrive on scene before the equipment.

[ThNozzleman]

Don’t you just love it when it’s nothing.

You better believe it. Why would you want it any other way??

[LRFireE135]

The AFA to beat all AFA's!!!

Try this one on for size folks!

Late afternoon at the firehouse...Sitting in the recliners watching a little TV on our "downtime."

Tones Drop

Automatic Fire Alarm in Industrial District

Alarm Company reporting an activated "pull station."

Enroute, we are gearing up and getting ready, taking it a little bit more serious than usual because it was in fact a pull station. While enroute in our beast that had a top speed of 55 mph, dispatch calls back and you get this:

Engine 11, Alarm Company has called back informing us that a SECOND alarm has been received from a "pull station!" (talk about skidmarks!!!)

You hear this and the adrenaline starts rushing. You pick up the pace and begin packing up ready for entry on a manufacturing plant structure fire! (would have been my first)

A second engine goes enroute heading your way. Upon arrival you find no smoke showing... Turns out one of the clumsy workers inside knocked a stack of boxes down and one hit the "pull station," setting off the alarm system. When he attempted to correct the situation, he put the handle back in the ready position and in attempting to turn it off effectively pulled the handle again which trasmitted the second "pull station" alarm! AND I WAS ALL SET TO GO TOO!!!

On a different note:

We still have to respond, but these calls are beginning to become routine, so we don't get alot of firefighters responding. The fear that sets in all of us is that sometime, this could be a working structure fire, with persons trapped and we would be scratching our behinds for manpower.

This is becoming all too common... Today, my department is lucky to have one engine with two people (which by the way is our paid staff) going enroute to an AFA. If this call DID turn out to be a working structure fire...We too would be scratching the 'ol buttcrack. As FIREFIGHTERS, we need to take AFA's more seriously! NOTHING should be ROUTINE!!!

(NOTICE I SAID ALL FIREFIGHTERS!)

Sure 99.9% of AFA's will end up being nothing... But what about that one where the two young children tragically died because no one could get to them in their upstairs bedroom and the fire department shrugged the call off as another false activation!?!?! All it takes is one folks...After that one, you will never forgive yourself, and your citizens will NEVER forgive you! When your people don't show up, it hurts us all!

Worse yet, when your chiefs tell your first due engine co's. to stand down and let them handle it, you are just asking for major problems. A chief's vehicle doesn't carry the necessary tools to combat a fire of any type rather than one in the very early INCIPIENT STAGE. I could see having ONE unit continue responding "emergency," and having the rest reducing code, but to disregard them all is insanity!

Remember Guys n Gals! It's our job to protect our community. Whether it be the first alarm activation of the day, or the 17th and on, the next one you respond to...just MIGHT be the real thing with people trapped needing our help! Just keep that in your mind the next time your tones drop and your dispatcher turns you out for an AFA activation.

Stay Safe My Brothers and Sisters!

[Dave1105]

Alarm Company reporting an activated "pull station."

Engine 11, Alarm Company has called back informing us that a SECOND alarm has been received from a "pull station!" (talk about skidmarks!!!)

I find it strange that this kind of alarm would get this kind of response out of your crew. Two Break-Glass/Pull alarms, no other detector activation and no exchange call from the premisis would indicate to me someone playing funny buggers. We get these kinds of alarms all the time.... especially since most of our alarms are equipped with BGA... they are easily knocked and set off by accident. We've actually had one incident not too long ago when a kid went through purpousfully breaking every BGA they could.... we had something like 7 or 8 go off....

Every automatic alarm job that i've gone to that's turned out to be a real fire has been evident REALLY REALLY soon that it's not "just an alarm" bar one.

When you turn out and your dispatcher comes back with "Roger that ****, Further Information for you, You've got a multiple detector activation in Zone ***, with sprinkler activation. Exchange call from premisis, thick smoke throughout alarmed area. Evacuation has commenced" it's time for brown trousers time. Anything else, I say, treat it like it could be a fire, act professionally and do your investigation as quickly as possible.

While Automatic Alarms should be treated seriously, I think treating them calmly is the best way to go.

[nmfire]

Most modern commercial alarms allow you to specify certain alarming parameters. For example, you can program it so that for example, it will only go into full alarm when two or more smoke heads activate. In the case of a single smoke head, it would still throw a pre-alarm on the panel for someone to go check out. If places did that intelligently, it would probably prevent a lot of the false alarms due to cooking, smoking, dust from outside, etc.

Where I work, we monitor our own alarms and call it in the FD ourselves. Our protocol is that any single smoke head activation gets a FD response. I know that the chances of a single smoke head being a working fire are very slim but thats the way it is.

I remember last year, I really thought we had "the big one". About 2am, the terminal screen started beeping like crazy. I looked and started F-12 scrolling through the alarms. I was getting EVERYTHING. Multiple smokes, heat sensors, pull stations, and water flow alarms cascading in from 3 different floors (5, 6, & 7). I can't repeat the words that I muttered here for the webteam would ban me. The FD dispatcher gets used to me telling them it is just one smoke head. We got a full box alarm instead of the usual Still Alarm from the FD so naturally, the place was surrounded on all sides by apparatus from all over the city. Our guys and the engineering crews were heading up already as well. You guys will like this. No fire, anywhere. Some @sshole on the mechanical floor was cleaning walls with bleach & water in a pressure washer and decided to clean the fire panel on the floor as well. He shorted the whole damn thing out and sent everything connected to it into alarm. He realized what he did when he heard the alarm and all the sirens and quickly dropped everything and left. Not sure if he still has a job or not. Morons.

[Diane E]

We had a 13-35 (working fire) dispatched out last Saturday at about 6:45 AM -- called in by the homeowner....Her "second house" was on fire....Crews get there and it's her SHED!!! "Working fire" for a shed!

[nmfire]

Originally posted by DianeC
We had a 13-35 (working fire) dispatched out last Saturday at about 6:45 AM -- called in by the homeowner....Her "second house" was on fire....Crews get there and it's her SHED!!! "Working fire" for a shed!

I've seen some backyard sheds that rival small homes.

[VolFFJohn]

I've seen some backyard sheds that rival small homes.

I know what you mean.

[cozmosis]

Originally posted by Dave1105
While Automatic Alarms should be treated seriously, I think treating them calmly is the best way to go.

I totally agree. I honestly believe that there is a big difference between an automatic alarm and a report of a fire received from a human. Some people I know would disagree... and go balls to the wall for both.