"The Fourth Alarm" is a work of short fiction by John Cheever which first appeared in Esquire magazine in April 1970.
Bertha rejects his demand for a divorce, and the narrator discovers through his attorney that, under New York State statutes, he has no grounds for a legal separation.
During the show, he experiences a sharp nostalgia for a silent film era picture he had been obsessed with as a child, entitled The Fourth Alarm.
When the "fourth alarm" signals the mobilization of the equine team, they charge into action, and the courageous firefighters suppress the blaze single-handedly.
Anxious about leaving his cash-filled wallet, watch and car keys unattended, he carries them in his hands as he advances towards the stage.
As he dons his clothing and departs the theater in a snowstorm, he reflects with satisfaction that his automobile has been recently equipped with a new set of snow tires.
[4] O'Hara writes: [These stories] are disturbingly misogynistic and sometimes lapse into medium-core pornography…obscene daydreams [that] Cheever had earlier tried to avoid.
The temper of the times was increasingly pessimistic, and he may have felt that changing his approach to sexuality was not only justified but necessary…his forays into this strange new world lack authority, and in their awkwardness tend to confirm the wisdom of his earlier reticence.
[5]"The Fourth Alarm" is a humorous examination of the clash between the nostalgia for youthful innocence and conventional love, as opposed to the 1960s sexual revolution, in particular its challenge to monogamous relationships.