Summary: How to express fire spread efficiently and effectively to firefighters was an important issue. The present study aimed to investigate how to present the fire alarm information, focusing on whether natural language alarm presentation was better than the alarm list presentation. Objective method and subjective evaluation were used to compare the difference among different expressions. The results revealed that natural language was better than alarm list in described a fire spread situation, and the effect was more robust when spatial information was added. Traditional alarm list was more accuracy than other forms, but it cost more time to read and comprehension. So natural language with spatial information will be recommended to the future design of fire alarm system.