Houston Fire Department Apparatus

[firepost]

It has been around for quite a while, when requesting an additional engine and not needing a full additional alarm you can request "taps" each "tap" is an additional engine such as District 20 give me 4 taps on the fire.  A 5 tap was an additional ladder truck - you might hear District 8 give me 3 - 5/taps for a special call of 3 ladder trucks.

 

Today we have added "plain text" and the code 1-11 which can be requested prior to a second alarm or a 2-11.  The 1-11 has different response levels based on the type of structure such as a house vs. apartments etc. - hope that answers the question.

 Thanks that does help. I'm from Chicago which is probably where Houston got the idea of 2-11 and up from. In Chicago we don't have a 1-11 however. When we call for more equipment above a "still alarm" (structure fire) we call it a Still and Box alarm instead of a 1-11 alarm like you do in Houston. If we need any additional equipment without calling for an full extra alarm we just request what we need. It is sometimes known as a special call. You shouldn't confuse a special call with a special alarm however. In Chicago if we need more extra alarms above a 5-11 we call those alarms special alarms. So what some fire departments call a 7th alarm or in some cases a 7-11 , in Chicago we would call it a 5-11 alarm and 2 specials.