Have you ever seen a news story and heard a fire described as a “Three-alarm” or “Two-alarm” fire and not understand exactly what that means? Each “alarm” is a pre-determined number and type of resources brought to the incident scene for assistance. The higher the alarm assignment, the more involved the incident is. Alarms do not necessarily apply solely to fires; they can apply to any incident. Each community will have their own unique alarm assignments.
Over the next few days, we will post Northampton’s alarm assignments and what resources each alarm brings to Northampton.
We will start with a box alarm, which is the least involved, or “lowest level,” alarm assignment. When a box alarm is declared, or “struck,” at an incident scene, ten off-duty NFD personnel are recalled to the station and 2 additional engine companies are called from surrounding towns for mutual aid.
Stay tuned for the rest of NFD’s alarm assignments in the next few days!