A small plane crashed in a Simi Valley neighborhood and caused a fire Saturday afternoon, authorities said. The pilot was believed to be the only person onboard.
It’s more of a firefighting specific term, used like a boxing analogy to indicate the fire is “knocked down to the mat, but possibly only temporarily, not necessarily completely out of the fight yet”. In my experience it’s less commonly used in reporting to the general public because a) it indicates some level of uncertainty that reporters like to avoid and b) it is not as widely understood, and I think in such a situation it would more typically be reported as either being “brought under control” or “put out” even when those terms might be inaccurate, as the actual nuance in between is generally lost on people who aren’t firefighters.
It’s more of a firefighting specific term, used like a boxing analogy to indicate the fire is “knocked down to the mat, but possibly only temporarily, not necessarily completely out of the fight yet”. In my experience it’s less commonly used in reporting to the general public because a) it indicates some level of uncertainty that reporters like to avoid and b) it is not as widely understood, and I think in such a situation it would more typically be reported as either being “brought under control” or “put out” even when those terms might be inaccurate, as the actual nuance in between is generally lost on people who aren’t firefighters.