r/Firefighting • u/Kevsterific • May 05 '25

Ask A Firefighter Did I waste the fire department’s time?

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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

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u/Eatsbakedchicken May 05 '25

I’m a career guy in a big city and I don’t even know about burn off’s. We pretty much exclusively fight high rise fires so when it comes to wildland im pretty clueless. I forsure would’ve called this in if I was just walking by

-2

u/Typical-Efficiency31 May 05 '25

I hate to break it to you but Ft. Lauderdale isn’t a big city hahaha

6

u/Eatsbakedchicken May 05 '25

I hate to break it to you but I don’t work for Ft. Lauderdale lol

1

u/Typical-Efficiency31 May 05 '25

Oh so you work somewhere even smaller?

1

u/Eatsbakedchicken May 05 '25

Check out a map of south Florida and do some deductive reasoning. Should be pretty easy unless you’re an absolute regard

2

u/giggitygoo123 May 06 '25

Do you know Canteen 26? If so, what's up