Ships us a system of alarms to warn personal that a fire emergency exists. The general alarm for Fire & emergency consists of one continuous blast of the ship’s whistle and continuous ringing of the ship’s General Alarm for no less than 10 seconds. Other alarms are triggered by installed fire detection and extinguishing systems.

Each vessel has a variety of internal communication capabilities including messengers, telephones, intercoms, radios and public address systems that can be used to coordinate fire response efforts.

To communicate with other vessels, the Coast Guard or shoreside fire department, the bridge uses a variety of external communication systems including marine radios and telephones as well as the ship’s whistle and signal flags.