Two tones is more serious, perhaps a fire alarm ringing somewhere, probably triggered by nothing more than a stray wisp of cigarette smoke or a burp of electrical current jiggling a circuit. Dispatch sends two engines and one ladder truck for those, picking whichever units are available and close. Even rarer is three tones. Three tones means a reported structure fire, a house or a condo or a strip mall already blowing smoke into the sky. It doesn't always turn out that way, but three tones, at least, offers the chance of action.
Firefighters love a triple.
They had spent their shifts cooking and cleaning and sleeping, interrupted only by sporadic milk runs and false alarms. Once his aide, George Zinkus Jr., had wheeled him to all six stations in the district, they would return to Central Station, where dinner, twenty-five pounds of beef, was roasting in the oven. McNamee cocked his head toward the radio. Engine 1, Engine 6, Engine 12, Engine 13, Ladder 1, Ladder 5, Rescue 1, Car 3. McNamee and Zinkus stared at each other, brows arched, eyes wide.