In addition, the firefighters themselves require special protective clothing.
Communication systems are necessary to alert fire departments to the outbreak of a fire.
Most fire alarms are telephoned to the fire department. This number can be dialed from almost any telephone and from most pay phones without a coin. Most other alarms are sent from automatic signaling devices, which are installed in many public buildings. These devices include smoke and heat detectors that are wired to send an alarm automatically to an alarm monitoring center. A sprinkler system can also be wired to alert the fire department automatically.