The World Health Organization highlights the tremendous damage caused by wildfires around the world. According to the organization, between 1998 and 2017, around 2,400 people were killed globally by fires and volcanoes. Wildfires are made all the more dangerous by their unpredictability; around half of them can't be traced to a particular source. On top of this, the heating of the planet and resultant drier landscapes only heighten the risk.
You may have heard of five alarm chili, touted by chefs and restaurants boasting of their dish's heat. This, of course, is a reference to the alarm system by which fires are rated. This system, it seems, corresponds to the number of personnel required to respond to an outbreak.
The Louisville Fire Department, per The Courier-Journal, deems a one-alarm fire (also referred to as a box alarm) a blaze to which 22 staff must be dispatched: two members of command staff and five teams of four personnel. For a two-alarm fire, 44 personnel are needed. A three-alarm fire is attended by 66 staff (six of which are command members), a four-alarm would demand 88 staff (eight of them being command), and a five-alarm fire necessitates 110 firefighters (10 being command staff). Twelve command staff and 120 firefighters are needed to tackle a six-alarm fire, a truly devastating inferno.
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