Open Fire, Miss Sands Way

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dgates80

Land of the lost
Oven Fire, Miss Sands Way

1849 Area Box 613 150 Miss Sands Way, Logan's Rest
Chief 2 & 2A, 1
Tanker 5 2
Squad 6
Engine Co 5, 6, 1 51 5a 62 w/ Lt.
Truck 1

Huh? It's raining! They are calling out the troops for this one, not sure why. Might be nothing, might be major....

1857 Units arriving on scene
1858 Chief 6A establishing command
1858 Lt. on scene, no fire, 911 callback in work

Slowing the response....

1900 New address, 140 Miss (Mist?) Sands Way -- house down the street. No answer on the callback
1902 Smoke in house from cleaning an oven. Ventilating fan being deployed.

1902 Returning the box, units returning to service. Command terminated.
 
Last edited:
G1G4

G1G4

Find em Hot, Leave em Wet
dgates80 said:
Chief 2 & 2A, 1
Tanker 5 2
Squad 6
Engine Co 5, 6, 1 51 5a 62 w/ Lt.
Truck 1

Huh? It's raining! They are calling out the troops for this one, not sure why. Might be nothing, might be major....
Click to expand...

Dunno how it works in Calvert, but on the box alarm for the house fire in St. Mary's, you'll get two engine companies, a special service and an ambulance. Let's say there was a house fire in California, somewhere back in Town Creek. The box alarm for the house fire would consist of Companies 9 & 3 for the engine, Company 9 for the tower and 38 for the BLS. Let's say Engine 91 (since the area we're hypothetically working with is non-hydrant), Engine 33, Engine 32 and Tower 9 were going with a total of 18 personnel. You can divide them up between the pieces how you like. Anyway, 91 gets on the scene, side alpha, heavy fire showing. Since there are two more engines enroute, 91 is going to be the primary attack, 33 will probably be secondary, 32 will be either S&R or RIT and Tower 9 is going to be ventilation/S&R. Anyway, on the working alarm -- you'll get another engine, another special service (I think the special service still goes, could be wrong) and the water supply unit. Anyway, what I'm basically getting at, is depending on how the call came in is how it was dispatched. If they got two calls from two seperate residences or people, they'll usually throw the working box on it just in case, because there are favorable factors.
Also, just theoretically and because I don't know how Calvert dispatches or departments SOG's, most of those engines were probably running extra because guys were hanging around the firehouse. If I'm not mistaken, Thursday night is training night for most departments in the county. Either way, with the exception of the ridiculous amount of engines going, it's a fairly standard response.
 
D

dgates80

Land of the lost
G1G4 said:
Dunno ..... probably running extra because guys were hanging around the firehouse. If I'm not mistaken, Thursday night is training night for most departments in the county. Either way, with the exception of the ridiculous amount of engines going, it's a fairly standard response.
Click to expand...

That's what caught my ear, the long tone out and the long dispatch with all the engines. They even were making offsite staging calls, and I don't think all the engines even made it to the scene before the "slow it down" call. Also< I was hearing dispatch say "open fire" vs. "oven fire" which got me thinking some sort of brush fire situation, which did not make sense considering how wet the brush fuels are what with the rain. I got to thinking, well, if something *did* get going with the rain it might must be a big burn, thus the response. The dispatch and the scanner traffic often do *not* have the whole story that the dispatcher gets from the original caller, I think.

With that thought, G1G4-- does dispatch sometimes make direct phone calls to Chiefs or rolling trucks with amplifying information that does not go out over the radio? I pretty much *know* the police share information via cell phones these days, either voice calls ot txt direct unit-to-unit, and I suspect dispatch-to-unit too from time to time.

So, the question becomes, why use the radio at all? It's because of the broadcast nature of radio, in that many units/receivers get the same mesage at the same time thus the whole"team" is working from the sameinfo set. Aso, in poweroutage situation or disaster sceanario, having an indepenent and redundent comm system is a good thing.
 
G1G4

G1G4

Find em Hot, Leave em Wet
If they toned out that much on the dispatch, they obviously got favorable conditions that there possibly was a working fire. That could've been multiple callers, or the original caller stating that s/he saw flames. I really dunno why open fire would be used, because I've never heard of it in relations to an actual fire. When I clicked the thread, I actually thought it was a police involved shooting, lol. Even with the rain, though, you can still get a pretty big fire. Unless it's a pounding, soaking rain -- a fire can survive fairly well.

Dispatch CAN make direct calls, however, they don't until after the fire or incident is deemed under control. This is done not only for the safety of crews, but for the safety of people on the roads. If a chief is responding hot on a run, and he's on his cell phone, it can be hazardous. Usually, all pertinent information will be relayed over the radio.

Onto the radio issue. Radios are the common source for everybody in emergency services. We all don't have cell phones, and cell phones won't always be practical. We can't take a cell phone into an 800 degree fire and expect to keep it to our ear and talk. I know that's probably not where your going, but it's just something people don't think about. Most FD's look at the radio as the equalizer. We all get dispatched at the same time, to the same place. If we know when and where we're going at the same time other departments do, then we can all work efficiently. The crews need to know the most, because they're the ones going in to do the work. The chief stands outside, keeps a tab on people, watches the status of the incident and those sorts of things. If there is two holes in the floor that the homeowner knows about, and they told Fireboard, Fireboard should tell everyone and not just call the chief.

I know that's not where you were going with it, but overall, Fireboard usually won't phone a chief officer until after the situation is declared under control, if they call at all.
 
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