It turns out it’s a big fire in Boston…

  • davidgro@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    A “3 Alarm” fire is one big enough to send 3 fire trucks, and in a Boston accent with an extra “a” at the end it would vaguely sound like “3 L llama”

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 hours ago

      Close! A 3 alarm fire could be shortened to “a 3 alarmer”. Which in Boston would be pronounced without the Rs for: “a 3 alamah”.

      • Jason@feddit.uk
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        4 hours ago

        So do people in the US rank the size of your fires in “alarms”??! Like a bin fire is a 1 alarm fire? But a house fire is a 3 alarm?

        Do you say, “quick, evacuate the neighbourhood, there’s an 8 alarm fire heading our way”

        I’ve never heard of this before today.

        • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          4 hours ago

          The number of alarms is (I think) how many different departments, or possibly fire engines, are needed to fight the fire. So yes pretty much. It’s often how they are described in news articles.