How bad is a five-alarm fire? What to know about system after SouthPark blaze
READ MORE
SouthPark Fire
On May 18, 2023, a five-alarm fire broke out at a construction site in SouthPark. Two men died as a result of the blaze.
Expand All
A massive fire in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood accelerated to a five-alarm fire Thursday morning, bringing out numerous fire crews to help control it.
The blaze — which shut down multiple roads into the afternoon and left at least one person with “life-threatening injuries” — was initially reported by Charlotte Fire about 9:15 a.m. as a two-alarm fire before jumping up the scale. More than 90 firefighters ultimately responded, Charlotte Fire officials said at a press conference.
The numbered alarm system is a common practice among fire departments that helps determine how many fire crews are dispatched to a situation.
Here’s what to know about alarm levels and what they mean for fire response:
What do the number of alarms mean in a fire?
The number of alarms in response to a fire “generally indicates how many firefighters and emergency vehicles are dispatched” to the scene, according to the fire safety company Desert Fire.
“The decision is made depending on factors such as the size of the structure and the size of the fire, as well as whether it is threatening adjacent buildings and the number of people that may be trapped inside,” the company says.
Different fire departments may “send a different number of response units for each degree alarm,” the fire safety company A & A notes.
The more alarms, the more emergency responders are needed to control the fire in question.
The system dates back to the 1800s, Slate reported, when major cities such as New York and Philadelphia would use bells to “sound out a coded message” to first responders in the event of an emergency.
How bad is a five-alarm fire?
Most fires fall within a scale of one to five alarms, with five alarms typically being the most serious and the rarest, according to Desert Fire.
More than 90 firefighters responded to Thursday’s five-alarm blaze in South Park, Charlotte Fire officials said at an afternoon press conference, including responders from neighboring departments.
Thursday’s fire reached temperatures above 2,000 degrees, fire chief Reginald Johnson told reporters. Officials and Charlotte Observer journalists near the scene reported embers falling throughout the area and some spot fires.
Fires can exceed the five-alarm scale, Slate notes. A 2006 fire in New York City, for example, escalated to 10 alarms.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023 at 3:11 PM.
