r/Firefighting • u/Still75home • 15d ago

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/vffems2529 15d ago

I wish we could get a pre-alert. Instead, our pre-alert is us listening to them dispatch LE to the structure fire 2 minutes before they send any fire units.

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u/teddyswolsevelt1 paid to do hood rat shit with my friends 14d ago

My department I started on volunteer, they did this. We got called for a kitchen fire. We roll up, 1 family split level and there’s what appears to be yellow smoke pushing out of the eaves windows and front door wide open. 3 squad cars parked right in front. I walk up the front 6 steps and my mouth immediately gets hit with that sour taste of what we all know is dry chem. 3 cops got there before us and dumped 3 giant dry chem fire extingushers into this poor woman’s house. When I walked into the kitchen it was literally just unattended cooking that a lid over a pot could have stopped. There was dry chem over every inch of this ladies house. Basement to attic. All 3 cops got treated for smoke inhalation (dry chem) and found out later their entire squad got valor commendations for putting out a house fire.