The term Brown Out means the closure of a fire company.
Each company protects a district and this is done to have the quickest response to you in your time of need.
By closing a company, it makes the surrounding companies not only cover their own districts, but adds the district that was covered by the closed fire company.
There is domino effect to all closures.
If the surrounding companies are making runs to the closed company’s district, and a run comes in to their district, then another fire company from farther away has to cover that fire company’s district.
What does this mean?
There will be delays, not only for the closed company’s district, but for the districts that surround it.
In a real world scenario, if Engine 10 is making a run to Third and Georgetown for a car accident, because Engine 4 is closed, and a structure fire comes in for Blackburn Correctional, there will not only be a delay for the first engine to arrive on scene, but also the second and third engines because they are being dispatched from districts farther away.
And again, if a run comes in to the district of the engines from the farther away districts that are covering for the closure, there will be a delay to their district also.
Why does this matter, it may only be a minute delay?
For fires, each minute that passes the fire doubles in size.
For medical runs, each minute that a person is in cardiac arrest, the chances for their survival decreases by 7-10%.
Do you want this delay to your family in their time of need?
