NYC: Big fire (4th alarm now) across a church and several multi-unit residential buildings at 12th St and 27th Ave in Astoria.
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The box technology has changed (most surviving ones can do voice communication now), and many of the physical alarm boxes have disappeared, but every location is still associated with a box, which, even if the box isn't there, determines which firehouses are "first due".
When you call 911 today, the fire dispatcher first figures out the box number associated with the location and sends the first due engines and trucks for that box.
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@mattblaze Boston's fire boxes are very much still around, and although the backend systems have been computerized for quite a while now, the boxes themselves are still very much a wind-up telegraph inside. As a nice feature, the wiring is entirely independent of the phone and electrical systems, so should there be a major systems outage in one area, the boxes still work. They actually did work last time 911 went down state-wide and someone pulled one out of desperation. Thankfully the news reported on that, and it was promoted enough for people to actually read it and learn those are still actively maintained and monitored...
The fire museum has one of their oldest computers, as well as a disconnected box for people to pull and look inside of. (Well, it's connected to the computer behind it, but not to the actual fire system)
And yes, they still have the manual telegraph key in the box. AFAIK it's only really used for testing stuff these days?
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
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The problem with always dispatching the nearest available fire house is that if there's a large fire somewhere, there won't be nearby available firefighters to respond to *other* fires nearby, requiring the initial response to come from far away.
So they don't always send the nearest available. Instead, they skip over some of them, to ensure maintaining availability near large incidents.
But figuring who best to send next quickly becomes pretty complicated, with multiple contingencies.
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@mattblaze
CalFire generally sends the closest units, then has further away units move up to cover empty stations. But California is still not as densely populated as NYC.
With all the mutual aid agreements in place, the cover units will frequently be from another agency. -
@mattblaze
CalFire generally sends the closest units, then has further away units move up to cover empty stations. But California is still not as densely populated as NYC.
With all the mutual aid agreements in place, the cover units will frequently be from another agency.@Dougfir Yeah, this system works in large dense cities (LA and SF, maybe).
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Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
@mattblaze This is absolutely fascinating and I'm grateful to you for sharing it. Thank you.
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
@mattblaze Super cool. Thanks for sharing!
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NYC: Big fire (4th alarm now) across a church and several multi-unit residential buildings at 12th St and 27th Ave in Astoria.
@mattblaze My obsession with nominative determinism makes this thread 100x more fun.
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
@mattblaze It really is fascinating! I went down this rabbit hole learning about my large suburban FD (Montgomery County MD) and the pre-planning and training is *very* detailed. For each apparatus, once they’re told “you’re the second due” each person (defined by seat) already knows exactly what their initial assignment will be on arrival.
Obviously, very dynamic thereafter. But as they say, plans are useless, but planning is essential.
Nerdsniped.
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@VE2UWY I have that book, somewhere!
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Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
I grew up in NYC but only knew part of that. Telegraph and not-nearest for second order responders: yes. Predetermined second order responders and "battalions": no.
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System shared this topic
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@tehstu NYC has always been on the leading edge of this, but other dense cities generally do something similar.
@mattblaze @tehstu I live in a metro area of about 500K, and I hear terms like "box number" and "fast company" on dispatch all the time. I'm guessing this is some simplified version of the system described. They usually just dispatch specific apparatus by name (e.g., Ladder 7, Rescue 4) after that.
I wonder if "fast company" is basically the 'on call' for actual fires and major events.
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@mattblaze @tehstu I live in a metro area of about 500K, and I hear terms like "box number" and "fast company" on dispatch all the time. I'm guessing this is some simplified version of the system described. They usually just dispatch specific apparatus by name (e.g., Ladder 7, Rescue 4) after that.
I wonder if "fast company" is basically the 'on call' for actual fires and major events.
@DarcMoughty @tehstu There's a lot of terminology that varies, but a "FAST" truck is often specially assigned outside the fire building in case other firefighters become trapped and require rescue. It stands for something like Fire (something) Search Team
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Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
This is a BIG fire, and still burning. They just called in two additional trucks. But it's starting to wind down. They just declared "probably will hold", which is the step before "under control". Over three hours so far.
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Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
@mattblaze I quite like the names we use here in Toronto, which are… quite descriptive. “Engines” are Pumpers, “trucks” are Aerials, and then we have Rescue Pumpers, Hazmat, Heavy Rescue Squads, and two High Rise units as the other primary apparatus (plus some variants like Tower and Platform). Then all the secondary apparatus like the Air/Lights, the giant “Tower One” (which is support, not primary; the other Towers are primary I think), and all the chiefs are just called “car” over the radio.
They also have a pretty cool foam pumper I’ve seen around once or twice, and I’m not sure if it would be primary or secondary (not sure how it’s crewed). It is, fittingly, assigned the unit number FP121.
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This is a BIG fire, and still burning. They just called in two additional trucks. But it's starting to wind down. They just declared "probably will hold", which is the step before "under control". Over three hours so far.
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
@mattblaze Very interesting! I never knew how the x-Alarm system actually worked.
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
@mattblaze how long until a tech bro comes and says: "wow, that system is outdated. Look at my shiny AI... We feed it with the fire location and it will tell the dispatcher who to send..."
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Anyway, it's a very interesting and complex real-time systems optimization problem, with lives at stake. And it was solved with 19th century technology, with the basic principles unchanged to this day.
8/8
@mattblaze I appreciate learning about this from a guy named Blaze
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@mattblaze how long until a tech bro comes and says: "wow, that system is outdated. Look at my shiny AI... We feed it with the fire location and it will tell the dispatcher who to send..."
@carstenfranke
And then gets told where to shove it. Disaster response communities are pretty careful about this kind of thing and have a certain amount of autonomy because of the whole people dying thing.
@mattblaze -
Some terminology: There are two basic kinds of firefighting vehicles: "Engines", which carry hoses and pump water, and "trucks", which have telescoping ladders. Each is crewed by 4 or 5 firefighters. Engines are chiefly responsible for putting out the fire, while trucks are chiefly responsible for rescuing people (and getting access to high floors). In NYC, a "battalion" has a chief that supervises (generally) two engines and one truck
Each additional alarm adds roughly 4 engines and 2 trucks.
@mattblaze Fascinating thread, thank you. I had no idea this existed, although now you explain it, it makes perfect sense.
