It is firefighters that put out fires, not fire trucks. A single fire truck is staffed with three or four firefighters, far too few to fight a serious fire alone. Additional fire trucks (up to four) respond to potentially serious situations to assure that there is sufficient manpower, pumping capacity, and support services to quickly, effectively, and safely fight a serious fire. It is very important that these resources arrive auickly at the fire scene since a fire can quickly grow beyond control. The fire department would rather send back personnel and trucks that aren't needed than to call for additional help after the fire has gained the upper hand.

Under North Carolina state statutes, a vehicle such as a fire truck must sound an audible warning signal (siren, horn, hbell) while responding to an emergency in order to be considered an "emergency vehicle" in the eyes of the law. If an accident were to occur with a fire truck responding to a call without its siren sounding, the Fire Department would be held liable since the state law does not require motorists to yeild to an emergency vehicle unless it is sounding an audible warning.

Late at night, when traffic is light, fire truck drivers are allowed to reduce the volume output of the siren if they deem appropriate. However, sirens play an important role in addition to warning traffic. The sound of an approaching siren serves to assure a person (who may be watching his or her home burn) that the Fire Department will arrive soon. This assurance may be enough to prevent a person from reentering a burning house to attempt to fight the fire or retrieve belongings. Most people who escape a burning house and re-enter the house will die in the fire.

Given the large size of fire trucks and the noise that they make, it is easy to overestimate how fast a fire truck is travelling. This is especially true in the uptown area.

Fire truck drivers are thoroughly trained and are required to demonstrate their competence on an annual basis. Departmental policies are in place governing the safe operation of fire trucks responding to an emergency.

It is also worth pointing out that with the number of volunteer fire departments that are located near the city limis, it is likely that a fire truck you may see travellign a city street is not a Lexington Fire Department vehicle. Any questions or concerns about the operation of fire trucks within the city should be directed to the Fire Chief at 248-3935. Please be prepared to give accurate information as to the place, date, time of day, and description of the fire truck in question.

A fire truck is sent to an automobile accident if someone is injured. Once on the scene, the firefighters check for gasoline leaks, disconnect the vehicle's electrical systems, provide basic emergency care to the accident victims, and assist with the direction of traffic.

Ordinarily not. However, there are rare occassions when the ambulance servce may need assistance performing CPR on a patient, gaining entry into a locked house, or loading a heavy patient. In such occassions, a fire crew may respond to assist the amublance service. The ambulance crew more than returns this favor by providing medical standby service at serious fires.

If you see a fire truck parked on the street or in a parking lot, the firefighters assigned to that truck are probably conducting fire prevention inspections in the area. All state-mandated fire prevention inspections in Lexington are doncuted by firefighting personnel who have been trained and certified by the North Carolina Department of Insurance as a Fire Prevention Inspector. The firefighters drive the fire truck to the inspections site so that they can immediately respond to an emergency call without having to spend valuable time returning to the station to pick up the truck.

Although it may appear inefficient to use the fire trucks for activities such as conducting fire inspections, it is just the opposite. Legends have abounded for many years concerning how much it costs the taxpayers eachtime a fire truck leaves the station. In reality, the amount of money the Fire Department spends each year to operate our entire fleet of vehicles represents less than two percent of our total budget. The amount of money the Fire Department spends to keep firefighters on duty twenty-four hours a day amounts to over ninety-one percent of our budget. The best way we can increase our efficiency as an organization is to maximize the productivity of the on-duty firefighters out of the stations and into the community where they can be of greater service (such as conducting fire prevention inspections) is a judicious use of resources. In effect, we utilize less than two percent of our resources (vehicle operation) to make maximum use of the ninety-one percent (personnel).

Dial 911. Remember that when a fire occurs, time is critical. Call 911 immediately if you have a fire or suspect that you have a fire! Teach your children how to report an emergency also. Any emergency (Fire, Police, Medical) can be reported in Lexington by dialing 911.

No. The Fire Department never charges to respond to a fire call. Never let the fear of having to pay keep you from calling to report a fire.

Absolutely not. We understand that sometimes appearances are deceiving. It is the nature of the Fire Department's work to respond to suspected emergencies that turn out to be less severe than the caller thought when they reported the situation. So never hesitate to report anything that you see or smell that you think might spell trouble. The Fire Department wouldrather respond and not be needed than to arrive late and have to deal with a serious fire. Many serious fires have resulted when someone smelled smoke for several hours before calling the Fire Department.

Time is a firefighter's greatest enemy. If a building is to be spared from significant fire damage, the fire must be controlled and extinguished before a phenomenon known as a "flashover" occurs. When flashover occurs, there is a very rapid increase in flame production in the area burning, accompanied by a rapid buildup of toxic gasses and a drop in oxygen content throughout the building. In short: flashover is when a small fire becomes a big, bad fire - fast. After flashover, a fire will require major effort (and risk) on the part of the firefighters to control. The likelihood of saving a burning structure and anyone trapped inside is greatly diminished once flashover occurs.

How a fire behaves in a burning building is fairly predictable. Flashover in a structure usually occurs about ten minutes after a fire is ignited. This means that there is about a ten minute window of opportunity to control a fire before flashover occurs. A lot of things must take place within this ten minute period of time: the fire must be discovered; the fire must be reported; firefighters must be alerted; fire crews must respodn and arrive; equipment must be positioned, and water applied to the fire. When a call is received by a paid fire department, fire crews are available to staff the fire trucks and respond to the fire and initiate action immediately. When volunteer firefighters receive a call, they usually must leave their homes and jobs to go to the fire station to get the fire trucks, then respond to the fire.

By maintaining firefighters on duty twenty-four hours a day, ready to immediately respond to fires, paid fire department such as the City of Lexington are able to significantly increase the likelihood that firefighters will arrive at a fire and control it before flashover occurs and the devastating effects of flashover results.

In most areas of the city, the Fire Department can arrive in two to five minutes after receiving an emergency call.

The number of fires that occur in Lexington is about average for a community our size. Don't le the fact that you rarely see anything in the news about fires in Lexington lead to the conclusion that fires don't happen. Since fires that are prevented and fires that are quickly and efficiently controlled don't make headlines, a lack of news about fires in a community is one of the best indications of an effective fire department.

Yes. Probabl the most important thing the Fire Department does in addition to fighting fires is working to prevent fires. Following a tragic fire in a North Carolina industrial plant in 1991 in which 25 employees died, the North Carolina Department of Insurance set out explicit public requirements that each city, town, and county perform periodic fire prevention inspections to assure local compliance with the North Carolina Fire Prevention Code. hen the mandate to conduct periodici fire prevention inspections came from the Department of Insurance, the City of Lexington was faced with having to hire a number of fire prevention inspectors to accomplish the number of fire inspections required. In order to avoid the significant budget increases associated with creating new positions (salaries, beenfits, uniforms, vehicles, etc.) the Fire Department opted to maximize its human resources by training the existing firefighters to conduct the fire inspections. Most of Lexington's firefighters in addition to being highly skilled in firefighting have also been thoroughly trained and are fully credentialed as Fire Prevention Inspectors by the Code Qualifications Board of the North Carolina Department of Insurance.

In Addition to the fire inspection workload, firefighters must train and drill regularly to maintain and increase their firefighting skills.

Firefighters also conduct training sessions for local business and industry in the areas of fire extinguishers use and emergency evacuation.

Firefighters often conduct fire safety presentatiosn for groups such as schools, senior citizens, and civic clubs.

Most of the repairs and routine maintainance of all Fire Department buildings, equipment, and vehicles are performed by firefighters.

No. The Lexington Fire Department receives 100 percent of its funding from the General Fund of the City of Lexington. You support the Lexington Fire Department when you pay your City property tax and pay your City utility bills. If anyone contacts you asking you to make a contribution to the Lexington Fire Department, you should notify the Police Department and the Fire Chief.

Yes, we welcome the opportunity to show the fire trucks and fire stations to the public. Feel free to stop in any time the firefighters are in the stations. The best times to catch the firefighters when they are not engaged in training, inspections, or maintainance activities are on Sundays and most evenings.