Did I waste the fire department’s time?

[u/Kevsterific]

I was out for a trail run and got to a clearing at the top of a big hill that I could look out and see off in the distance.

I saw a big flame about 1km away (as the crow flies)

I called the fire department to report and stressed that while it looked like a big flame I didn’t know exactly where (I was able to give a street name by looking at google maps). In hindsight I didn’t see any smoke accompanying it and I didn’t think to mention it.

The dispatcher said there’s something called a burn off (I think that’s the phrase he used) in the area, but I told him I didn’t know what that was or looked like.

He said they’d send someone over to check it out but I’m just worried either it wasn’t actually a fire a was seeing or it was the burn off the dispatcher mentioned and I just wasted their time on a false alarm

I took this picture after I hung up, I wish I had a way of showing them what I saw so they could better determine what I was calling about

[u/IanHall1]

99% of the time, firefighters are sitting around waiting for something to happen, you gave them something to do. I know it’s not a good way of looking at it, and if there was a major emergency elsewhere, it would be a distraction, but it’s still better to be safe than sorry. As a firefighter, you did good, don’t worry about it. 👍