PSAP stands for Public Safety Answering Point, and the letter A represents Answering—the function of the center is to answer emergency calls and route them to the appropriate responders. In firefighting communications this is the key role of the PSAP: taking the call and initiating dispatch. Terms like alarm or alert refer to initiating notifications or alarms, not to the act of answering calls within the PSAP, and access isn’t part of the acronym. So the word that fits the A in PSAP is Answering.

Fire point is the temperature at which vapors will continue to burn after an ignition source is removed. At this temperature there’s enough vapor and heat so that once a flame is started, combustion can be sustained without continuous external flame. It sits above the flash point, which is the lower temperature where vapors can momentarily ignite when exposed to a flame but may not keep burning once the flame is gone. The idea that vapors ignite spontaneously without a flame describes autoignition, not fire point, and boiling point relates to when the liquid itself boils, not how its vapors burn. So the statement that vapors will continue to burn after ignition best captures what fire point means.

Defensive exterior attack means fighting the fire from outside the building, using water streams to knock down flames, limit heat, and prevent the fire from spreading while interior entry is avoided or postponed. This approach is used when interior suppression would be unsafe or unlikely to succeed because of conditions like structural instability or collapse risk, heavy fire involvement, limited access or visibility, or other hazards that make entering dangerous. The goal is to protect exposures and nearby property and to contain the fire from a safer, exterior position, with interior operations only considered later if conditions improve.

When a CAD system checks an entered address, it compares it against its address database to ensure a reliable map to a real location. If the entry is invalid or cannot be matched, the system cannot confidently assign a unit to that location. To prevent misdispatch, it prompts the telecommunicator for more information—such as confirming the address, providing cross streets, or offering nearby landmarks—so the location can be resolved before any units are dispatched. The other outcomes (shutting down, canceling dispatch automatically, or dispatching the closest unit without a valid location) would risk safety and are not how CAD typically handles an invalid address.