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One-alarm, two-alarm, three-alarm fires, or higher are categories of fires indicating the level of response by local authorities, with an elevated number of alarms indicating increased commitment of resources. The term multiple-alarm is a quick way of indicating that a fire was severe and difficult to contain. This system of classification is common in the USA among both fire departments and, consequently, news agencies.
The initial dispatch is referred to as the first alarm, and is typically the largest. Subsequent alarms are calls for additional units, usually because the fire has grown and additional resources are needed to combat it, or that the incident is persisting long enough that firefighters on scene need to be replaced due to exhaustion.
Requests for units from outside jurisdictions normally don't occur in urban areas until elevated alarms are reached (third floor and above), but depend on the location of the incident and the condition of the authority having jurisdiction at the time of the incident.
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History
The system of classification comes from the old tradition of using pull stations to alert the local departments to a fire in their area. The "box" would send a message to all local stations by telegraph that there was a fire, indicating the location as a number: (station area) - (box number), e.g. 11-2. Fires are still dispatched as "box alarms," following this tradition, with maps broken up into a grid of "box areas."
In popular culture
Chilis and similar dishes are often jokingly referred to by the "multiple alarm" nomenclature to indicate their "hotness" (pungency), e. g. "Fat Freddy's Famous Five-Alarm Chili".
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