when I call 911 for a fire emergency does the fire department respond differently based on what I say?
If i was in an office building with 1000 people and i called fire department...would they respond differently if i say "I see smoke" or "there is a smoke alarm going off?"
Any firemen out there?
911 dispatchers have a series of standardized questions that they ask each caller to determine the nature of the emergency and the extent of the emergency (how many people involved, etc.) This information is used to "code" a response to the emergency meaning the call is assigned a high priority (immediate life threat for example) or a low priority.
In addition to this information, fire departments have set plans for what apparatus will respond to each type of building based on the type of structure and amount of people who occupy the building.
If you were to call 911 on tell the dispatcher that you see smoke in the building, the dispatcher would start the pre-designated response to your building by the fire department. The dispatcher would pass the information that you see smoke on to the officer in charge on the fire department apparatus responding to your building. At that time, the officer in charge may request additional resources before arriving on scene.
