The first thing I did was call the fire department, but they told me it would take some time because they had another building on fire in another part of town.

fire 的意思是"火"，这里指"火灾"。 department 的意思是"部门"，指政府或机构的特定职能单位。 fire department 是美式英语中"消防部门"的说法，在英式英语中对应的说法是 fire brigade。