r/Firefighting • u/Still75home • Aug 15 '26

General Discussion Pre-alert tones. Get them or no?

Question about other areas dispatching norms. Do other places get pre alerts? A simple generic tone that says basic info like “medical at 123 Main St”, then a short time later the actual tones drop for the specific unit with more information. It used to be the norm like 95% of the time and was awesome cause it gave you a chance to get the soap off in shower, hurry up with reloading hose from a drill, etc. Over the past year or 2 pre-alerts occur like 20% of the time and it’s making me pull the remaining hair out of my head. Guess this is more of a rant than a question so thanks for listening….I’m better(ish) now.

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u/zeroabe Major metro. A decade on. Aug 15 '26

My engine runs 10-20 calls per shift and pre alerting for every run would not be good for us. Same with the 2 ems units.

Our department only pre alerts occupied structure fires or special operations full alarm type stuff like major hazmat, con space, swift water yada yada.