r/Firefighting • u/PhilosopherFull819 • May 29 '25

Ask A Firefighter Firefighter told me I shouldn't have called.

The smoke detector was going off from the car port underneath the garage apartments behind the 4plex I live in. I walked outside and saw no smoke or fire and found the detector. I mulled over reaching up and disabling it myself but I opted to err on the side of caution and report it. A truck pulled up minutes later and I showed the guys what I saw. The tallest one reached up and pulled it off and took out the battery. Another one got angry and said that I should "grow up" and "feel embarrassed" for calling. To which I replied I didn't want to turn off the alarm without confirming there was no danger that I couldn't see myself and thanked them and told them to have a nice day and they left. I imaging he was stressed and tired but can't help feeling like I did something wrong.

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u/Gainz4thenight May 29 '25

One time I was using a torch and the knob wouldn’t turn off. The flame went out but the propane kept leaking out. Didn’t know what to do with the fumes leaking out like that. Called the FD non emergency, they came and just twisted off the top knob. A couple of the dudes looked super annoyed, but at the same time I didn’t know if there was danger or not from the fumes. And I thought in my mind “what if theres pressure and taking the knob off is dangerous”. Better to be safe than sorry.

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u/mulberry_kid May 29 '25

I'll never fault anyone for not knowing how to mitigate a situation, but you have to remember that most firefighters will have a memory of being late to, or not able to respond to a real emergency, because they were tied up on a call where they weren't really needed.

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u/Gainz4thenight Jun 06 '25

That’s why I called the non emergency number. I figured it’s not something to have people rush to my location for, but at the same time I thought the non emergency would have told me what to do in that situation. Instead of telling me what to do, they told me to place it outside the apartment and they will send FD to my location. If the dispatch gave me confirmation to twist the cap off then I would have done so myself. I was young at the time and not knowable of this. Now I know I’m the future what I can do in this situation without separating recourses.

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u/mulberry_kid Jun 06 '25

You did the right thing. Often times, an emergency response will occur because the 311 (non-emergency number in many places) dispatchers aren't able/allowed to determine whether or not something is an emergency.