Some have called it a "Fire Stream"!.....I know, I know, thats water delivered under pressure through a conduit we call a hose shaped and formed to exhibit properties as the nature of the combustion requires. But we all have someone who likes to take liberties with those words we hold near and dear........
Where i am we use plain english as well...helps out a lot seeing as our dispatch center dispatches for the whole county. IMO i think 10 codes are confusing.
Stewart County TN here,
Tones drop then dispatch comes over " 10-21 of a ______ (house/residence, field, barn, etc etc ) Then the first to arrive on scene, whether its fire, EMS or police usually tells in plain english what it is and whats going on.
We use nothing but PLAIN ENGLISH with the exception of 10-4 (acknowleging), the agencies around us all have different codes and signals (the sheriffs office signal 1 is a wreck while the ambulance signal 1 is a full cardiac), we don't want the confusion of trying to figure out. Some of the newer guys memorize the county's 10 code list but the chief tells them where to put it whenever they come over the radio with "oncesce 10-10 ,were 10-43 etc etc."
Here our dispatch in Western New Mexico just calls it out as a structure fire until proven otherwise by the first unit on scene. Although we do have a different designation for a commercial structure fire. Normally our pagers will show whether there is smoke and fire showing or a brief description of what they have called in, but other times we dont get anything. It depends on our dispatchers
Our dispatch center usually dispatches it as a possible structure fire and then lets the first unit on scene elaborate as to what it actually is. However, our neighboring dispatch center that is on our same frequency sometimes slips up when they are excited and start screaming code red.
HAHA I remember that!!! They are a class act!! Maybe part of the codes and signal numbers should include how to remove the microphone from the mouth and speak away from it so we can understand what is being said
Working fire. And we got rid of 10 codes over 10 years ago.
As far as determing how bad of an incident you have: For a pretty accruate rule of thumb, you can always tell how bad an incident is by how many blocks away people are pointing toward where you are going.
Permalink Reply by Vic on September 4, 2007 at 12:34am
In my county we use plain english (Manatee County Florida). On scene with a smoke showing or if there's flames then it's a working fire. Once the fire is under control we just let our dispatch know that the fire is under control. No colors or 10 codes.