( CNN ) -- The dead ca n't speak . Their cell phones do . And , for police , firefighters and paramedics , the incessant chirping , bleating and incongruously cheerful boom box beats of victims ' cell phones comprise a soundtrack of disaster . It happened at the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 , a commuter train crash in Los Angeles the next year , the movie theater massacre in Aurora , Colorado , last July and , again , at the night club fire in Brazil that killed 231 people on Sunday . The incessantly ringing phones , and the realization that someone is desperately trying to reach someone else who is now dead , short-circuits the psychological defenses first responders need to do their jobs , said Jim Crabtree , a registered nurse who helps train them for the Los Angeles County Emergency Management Services Agency . Four arrested in connection with deadly Brazil nightclub fire . `` It starts ringing and it becomes an instant reminder that this person is human , that they have friends and family who care , '' he said . It also leaves responders with an uneasy feeling they 're keeping a secret from the victim 's loved ones , Crabtree said . Crabtree first ran across the issue following the Virginia Tech shooting , in which a lone gunman , a student , killed 32 people . Some first responders could n't get the sound of ringing cell phones out of their ears , psychologists Christopher Flynn of Virginia Tech and Dennis Heitzmann of Penn State wrote in a follow up journal article . `` As police and rescue workers removed the bodies of the deceased and evacuated the survivors , they reported haunting memories of cell phones ringing in body bags as parents and friends desperately called their loved ones . '' Los Angeles first responders dealt with the same issue when a commuter train collided with a freight train in 2008 . Be ready for emergency at a crowded public gathering . Hundreds of firefighters and other first responders flooded the scene , clawing through the mangled wreckage to get at the bodies of victims . All the while , Crabtree said , dozens of cell phones kept ringing . Aurora police Officer Justin Grizzle spoke this month during a court hearing of entering a theater where 12 people died in that shooting rampage . The things he noticed : blood running down the steps and the sound of cell phones ringing . It was the same Sunday night , when firefighters rushed through a hole punched into the wall of the Kiss nightclub by people who had escaped the building after it caught on fire . They found dozens of bodies of club-goers who died of smoke inhalation . And they once again heard the sounds of ringing phones . Milton Neves , a reporter from Radio Bandeirantes , said some 800 to 900 mobile phones were going off at the same time . One alone had 104 missed calls . Hundreds of family and friends were desperately trying to reach loved ones who were at the nightclub in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria when a fire swept through early Sunday , killing at least 230 people and injuring hundreds more . Brazil nightclub fire : 'Like a war zone ' with bodies piled . `` It was a really complicated scene . A lot of smoke , a lot of shoes that were left , cell phones , because everybody tried to get out of there running , '' Glauber Fernandes , a reporter for CNN affiliate Band News said . `` While we were there , we saw the cell phones were ringing . It was parents , friends , trying to know about what was happening and nobody was answering . '' Few , if any , agencies have policies on what to do about the multitude of ringing phones police and firefighters frequently encounter at disaster scenes , Crabtree said . He said he tells trainees turning off the phones can help save their own sanity , but says some agencies could view the act as tampering with evidence . He favors policies that would allow responders to turn the phones off , but says most commanders have n't yet come to the same conclusion . `` It 's a 21st century problem , '' he said . But it 's an issue emergency agencies will have to deal with sooner or later , if the experience of first responders Crabtree has spoken to is any indication . `` They do n't talk about it openly , but when you get them alone ... `` Crabtree said , like the responders , leaving the rest unspoken . Deadly blazes : Nightclub tragedies in recent history . CNN 's Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report .
Ringing of victims ' cell phones is becoming a common marker of tragedy . Firefighters in Chicago encountered such a problem after Sunday 's fatal nightclub fire . A ringing alarm can undercut defense mechanisms used by responders , he says . Few departments have policies about turning off victims ' phones , trainer says .