Delayed Alarms— A Focus for Public Fire Educators
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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Any incident, no matter how minor, has the potential of becoming a major tragedy if fire forces are not immediately alerted.
In the case of a delayed alarm, we in the fire service can exculpate ourselves of an incident’s spread and resulting consequences. We can turn out in less than a minute, scream down the street at high speeds, swing into action in seconds—it’s not our fault if some dummy ran around in circles and didn’t call us.
Right?
Oh sure. We always tell people to call the fire department; but have we ever looked into why people don’t call the fire department? Why we don’t do something specific to attack the reasons for delayed alarms? There is a lack of awareness of this problem among firefighters and even among public fire educators, and we have no programs to deal with it. (All angry rebuttals to this statement are eagerly awaited.)
I remember an apartment house manager running across the lobby to kiss a fire inspector who only a few days previously had scolded her for “investigating” for 45 minutes before calling the fire department. The gas company. had released high pressure gas to every apartment. The manager had been trying to discover the cause of the gas fumes when a tenant called the office to report a stove on fire. Only then was an alarm called in to the fire department, and by that time there was a fire in every apartment.
Why do people hesitate and delay calling the fire department? Why are so many residential fires extinguished by the occupants?
I think the answer lies in part in the fact that most people do not want to be the center of attention. There is no way to be more the center of attention than by sounding a fire alarm, particularly when it turns out that there is no fire.
“Who called in the alarm?”
“What a waste of the taxpayer’s money!”
A burly fire officer, even more imposing in turnouts, grandly dismisses the civilian’s fear of jail.
“Unnecessary alarm” blares out over all the radios. And thus the message heard loud and clear by citizens is “Don’t call the fire department until you are sure there is a big fire.” Months or years later, this message bears bitter fruit.
The term “unnecessary alarm” provides a powerful, negative message not only to citizens but to the bean counters—”If you are doing so much unnecessary running, perhaps we can cut a few positions.”
There should be only three terms used to record the cause for alarm transmission: fire, malicious false alarm, and emergency.
An emergency is a citizen with a problem that we took care of. If a citizen needs expert advice as to whether smoke is hostile, why is the exercise of our unique expertise in this matter “unnecessary”? Does the doctor call it an unnecessary visit when we are told we do not have cancer?
The odds are that the average citizen will never discover a fire. I regularly ask firefighters, “Have you ever been the person who discovered a fire and transmitted the alarm?” Astonishingly few hands go up.
A wide net must be spread to catch a very few fish. Public fire education resources are limited and should be concentrated on the likely bottlenecks.
Who are the bottlenecks? Persons in authority. Like the centurion in the gospel who explained to Jesus his importance in life (“I say to this man go and he goeth; and to another come, and he cometh . . .”) the person in authority wants control of all that happens in his sphere of influence.
December 1,1958, was the tragic fire at Our Lady of Angels School in Chicago, IL, where 90 children and five nuns died. The school was filling with smoke. Some teachers removed classes from the building but they did not sound the alarm because “only the principal sounds the alarm.” She was not in her office.
The instructions and practices of watchmen, guard forces and police officers should be checked.
Before the days of 911, a watchman was locked in a plant at night. The switchboard was closed. Only a pay phone was available to call help. In the event of an emergency, the watchman had a gun and enough ammunition to fight a war, but no change to call any of the emergency services.
How many times have you read of watchmen or employees on the night shift calling the boss at home before calling the fire department? Ask the specific question: What are the fire instructions? Would you call the boss first? If so, get the boss to change the instructions. Remember, you are not a general in the watchmen’s army.
Building guards have died because they followed the usual practice of investigating before calling for help. In the recent Howard Johnson Hotel Fire in Orlando, FL, only the automatic recall of the elevators to the lobby prevented a guard from getting off an elevator onto the fire floor to investigate, as was his intention.
Governmental agency guard forces particularly have an inflated opinion of their “duty” to prevent “false” alarms. Police officers on night patrol have been known to spend quite a bit of time investigating smoke before calling the fire department.
Why not have an inspector check hotel and motel night staffs, asking them what they would do if a guest reported a fire. Believe me, you’ll be astounded. Many members of night crews are transient, some have little English, and few are properly instructed in emergency procedures. Even if employees do know the proper action to take, the inspector’s visit and pep talk is a reinforcement.
Maintenance employees and tenants of housing units will almost certainly go to the “office” to report a fire. Usually, the manager runs to investigate before calling the fire department.
Try to get the employees together with the manager and a representative of the tenants. Get the message out to “Call the fire department immediately if you smell smoke, hear a detector go off, or smell gas. Then notify the office.” If this message is delivered in the presence of the manager, the employees will probably act on it. Don’t just say “For fire call 911.” This implies the message of “Don’t call us until you see fire.”
Work with the staffs of industrial plants, housing units, and office buildings. Convince them of your desire to keep their operations running. Discourage the use of extinguishers before calling the fire department.
An attitude adjustment is needed on both sides of this delayed alarm problem. Responding firefighters must investigate for the cause of alarm transmission. Finding neither cause for an alarm nor a malicious transmission of a false alarm, firefighters must reassure the worried public that if in doubt they should still call the fire department immediately. The public relations problem of the griping firefighter has to be stopped and turned into a public education opportunity.
