Fire service codes

[David H]

While using their 2 way radios, UK firefighters use status codes to describe the work they are doing. Does anyone know their meanings?

[Quizmonster]

I'm offering the following website only on the basis that there may possibly be a connection between fire departments' code-usage worldwide. It lists the codes used by the New York Fire Department...I can't find a similar site for British brigades via Google. Click on http://www.nyfd.com/radio.html

[gazzawazza]

Are you in the UK(?) because being a firefighter I'm having trouble thinking what you can be on about. The language we use over the radio is far from being coded and anyone with the necessary equipment could listen in and have no trouble figuring out what we're talking about although I do believe it's illegal to listen in to the emergency services unauthorised.

If you give some examples I may be able to give some more info but I suspect it may be a regional thing detailing something very mundane like what has caused a detector head to actuate. We don't pass anything of a sensitive nature over the airwaves as we have the facility to request a "pip-signal" which prevents eavesdropping.

[gazzawazza]

Sorry, I missed the bit about UK firefighters... I'll blame Quizzie for putting that thought in my head!

[David H]

Thanks both of you. This is the London Fire Brigade, if it's not legal to listen then it's lucky you can only DF a transmitter (gazzawazza will know what I mean...) All London firefighters calling into their base tell the operator something like, 'Finished Finsbury park, status 7' or arrived Walton on Thames, house fire, code 3' etc. The emergency services website has all UK codes except these, and they are just as busy as police channels, with 3 or 4 calls per channel on most minutes of the day, all using a status code as well as address and fire details.

[gazzawazza]

Hmmm, David, I don't know what DFing a transmitter is! Being a practical person I'm not very technically minded especially when it comes to radio signals and technology etc.

This is definitely a regional thing, although looking at the examples you gave made me realise that we do actually use codes like the ones you're referring to, only ours are passed by a button on the appliance radio, each code being assigned a number which we can transmit to save airtime. These codes are like I said mundane things like mobile to incident, in attendance, mobile home station etc.

I really can't speak for London FB, but looking at the examples you gave, "status 7" could mean something like "Mobile home station/previous duties/delayed x number of minutes" but "Code 3" could mean many things, such as "Firefighting in progress," "Make pumps three (requesting assistance)," "Persons reported" "All persons accounted for" etc. As I said, I'm only hazarding guesses here.