When there is a fire, the alarm goes off

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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A: Oh, my God. Now you started a fire. Oh, now you set off the smoke detector.
B: Oh, pardon?
A: I said, “now you set off the smoke detector”. Hah.
B: Oh, what was that noise?
A: The smoke detector. The fire alarm. You set it off.
When there is a fire, the alarm goes off.
B: Why?
A: Because an alarm means there’s an emergency.
B: Emergency?

When there is a fire, ←

1- What does “When there is a fire” mean?

  • Does it mean "When a fire happens "?

2- Does “there is” mean “happens” in this sentence?

Thank you

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Pretty much.
I think “a fire happens” means a fire starts.
“There is a fire” indicates that a fire exists, but probably no one would care about the difference.

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Thank you so much, Arinker :rose:

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I don’t think we can use ‘a fire’ when fire is a non-count noun which cannot be pluralized or quantified.
We may say ‘an occurrence of fire’.
Even the proverb says: Where there is smoke, there is fire.
What’s your take on it, @Torsten?

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The phrase “a fire boke out” occurs frequently on websites like the BBC, so “fire” is both countable and uncountable. Here is an example

At least 27 people are feared to have died after a fire broke out in a building in downtown Osaka, Japan.

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I think there’s two different concepts here.
There is fire in my kitchen whenever I turn on the gas stove, but fortunately I have never had a fire there.

Also in the plural:
“Brush fires rage in Southern California amid record heat, worsening drought.”

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This is also interesting:

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