Swarthmore Fire & Protective Association Report (January 20 - February 2, 2020)

January 20 - February 2

In this two-week period, the ambulance responded to 34 calls for medical assistance, to Swarthmore, Rutledge, Morton, Springfield, Nether Providence, Ridley, Ridley Park, and Rose Valley. The calls were for a variety of emergencies, including cardiac emergency, seizures, hypertension, fall, unconscious person, head injury, syncopal episode, allergic reaction, respiratory difficulty, reaction to medication, and diabetic emergency.

In addition, the fire company responded to: 

• Two automatic alarms, including one, on Morgan Circle in Swarthmore, for smoke coming out of a dryer.

• One building alarm, in Darby Township, for a three-alarm fire in an apartment complex.

• One carbon monoxide alarm.

• One automobile alarm.

• One cover assignment.

• Four mutual aid calls to Nether Providence, Darby Township, and Darby Borough.

Explainer: What Are ‘Alarms’ Exactly?

In the Swarthmore fire company report this week, Chief Engineer Rich Cresson mentions a three-alarm fire in an apartment complex in Darby Township. Realizing we didn’t know exactly what “three-alarm” meant, we asked him. This is what he said:

The number of alarms is a method of communicating the severity of the incident. The number (one, two, three, and so on) tells the fire company how much equipment to send. Each municipality does this differently, so a one-alarm fire in Swarthmore is different from a one-alarm fire in Media or Philadelphia.

Also, for each different type of fire, the amount of equipment corresponding to an alarm is different. So, a one-alarm house fire calls for different equipment than does a one-alarm brush or hazmat fire.

For any fire, the initial dispatch will always be one alarm. Then, if more equipment turns out to be needed, the incident commander may call a second alarm, and so on.

For a one-alarm (“initial dispatch”) house fire in Swarthmore, for example, the Swarthmore fire company will send all its equipment, and vehicles and firefighters from Morton-Rutledge and Springfield will be called too.

If the fire gets worse, the person in charge of fighting it (the OIC, or Officer in Command) may decide that a second alarm is called for. Now, the fire is a two-alarm fire. Vehicles and firefighters from other nearby fire companies will come help according to a prearranged, two-alarm plan.

If the fire gets even worse and becomes a three-alarm fire, still more companies will be called.

What if the building that’s blazing is not a house? What if it’s a school, apartment building, or nursing home, for example — a “high life hazard structure”? 

In this case, a one-alarm fire would summon a lot more equipment than would be sent for a house. Not only the Swarthmore, Morton-Rutledge, and Springfield companies would come, but also Garden City’s and South Media’s as well. 

Having the “alarm cards” set up in advance — so equipment can be dispatched in a pre-arranged manner — saves time and makes dispatching more efficient. It coordinates the efforts of firefighters and frees the incident commander from having to spend time requesting specific apparatus instead of focusing on the fire at hand.

Rich Cresson
Chief Engineer  

Next time, the chief engineer will explain the differences among types of firefighting vehicles and tell us about Swarthmore’s equipment.