Firefighting Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Firefighting

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blue canary n. The report says the department does not outfit all its vehicles with gas detectors or binoculars, which would enable rescue workers to identify a hazardous material by a placard from a safe distance. Instead, some rescue workers say they would use the “blue canary” system, relying on the reactions of other personnel. “It’s a terrible thing, but if the police officers are falling over next to the scene, then you know not to go near it,” one medic said. [English Firefighting Police Slang] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2006)

blue canary n. “This is a different kind of training, because usually an officer rushes right in. Here, we get them to approach slowly and size up the situation,” said Chinn, a former narcotics officer who first got anti-terrorism training to deal with threats from Colombian drug lords. “We don’t want firefighters to use police officers like blue canaries. If a firefighter counts down until he finds the last police officer, that’s not a good thing."…"Identify. Isolate. Notify. Stay uphill, upwind, upstream and at least 300 feet away.…Don’t be a blue canary. Don’t be a coptometer.” [English Firefighting Police Slang] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2006)

blue canary n. As miners once used caged canaries to warn them of poisonous gas underground, the greatest fear of these two streetwise veterans is a “blue canary,” a police officer or emergency worker who unknowingly walks into his or her demise. [English Firefighting Police Slang] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2006)

blue canary n. Altschul said that the first responders to any terrorist attack would likely be police or firefighters. Like the canaries once used by miners to detect poisonous methane gas, the “blue canaries,” as police and firefighters are sometimes called, would probably suffer heavy casualties until the agent is identified. [English Firefighting Police Slang] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2006)

blue canary n. I’ve got to admit I was only a little surprised by the fact that the cops ran in the building without gear, common sense, etc. Have you ever seen cops approach the scene of a possible Haz-Mat incident? They’re not called “Blue Canaries” for nothing! [English Firefighting Police Slang] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2006)

bump and run n. When faced with a wildfire, structural firefighters employ a technique called “bump and run,” which they practiced Monday night in Sunriver. A fire truck backs into the driveway of a home and firefighters jump out to assess their surroundings. If the situation is safe and the home can be saved, they look for flammable items like gasoline and woodpiles that they can move away from the fire. Then they deploy hoses and work to control the nearing blaze. When the fire has been knocked down, they pack up and move onto the next house. [English Firefighting] [full cite] (May. 11, 2005)

bump up v. phr. He lauded the five killed in the Esperanza Fire as among the most trusted and urged their loved ones to “bump up,” a common firefighting term meaning “move forward.” [English Firefighting] [full cite] (Nov. 9, 2006)

burnout n. Fortunately it didn’t quite come to that, thanks to quick thinking from fire crews, who initiated burnouts. It may look out of hand, but these fires were set by firefighters intentionally. The idea…if you set a fire yourself, you’re in control of it, and if the real fire comes close there won’t be anything left on the ground to fuel the blaze. [English Firefighting] [full cite] (Jul. 2, 2005)

burp v. The firefighters have a technique called “burping the suit” that involves pulling open the neck of the Mustang, then crouching down to force excess air out of the suit. The technique prevents the suit from ballooning once they jump in the water. [English Firefighting] [full cite] (Feb. 9, 2007)

chatter n. The Scientific Games Corporation, which dominates the scratch-off market and counts states like Texas and Massachusetts as clients, advises lottery managers to increase jackpots to lure players.…“But like any ‘tool,’ an increased payout is only useful when used in the right way,” the report cautions. Describing what it calls “chatter,” or midsize prizes, Scientific Games concludes, “Better to increase the number of chatter prizes in a game aimed at heavy players so that they see more of the prizes they are playing for and will communicate their excitement to others, creating a buzz for the game.” [Firefighting] [full cite] (Dec. 27, 2007)

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