Fire Alarm Box
I was walking back to my office today when I noticed this Fire Alarm Box hanging from a utility pole downtown. This is a good example of the things that I walk by all the time and don’t pay attention to.
I’m not sure when these were first installed in Wolfeboro, or if they work anymore. The first versions of this kind of box used telegraph lines.
One neat tid-bit that I found in The History of Wolfeboro book was that, “on September 30, 1942, two-way radio equipment was put into service by Chief LeRoy P. Mansfield, thus making Wolfeboro the first town in the state to have constant communication with its fire fighters.”
UPDATE:
I received an e-mail from Deputy Chief Thomas J. Zotti and he had this to say about my post:
“Yes, they still work and the system is used on a daily basis. The original fire box system goes back to before 1900. They don’t actually use phone lines. It’s a dedicated line just for the system. If you look above on the pole you’ll see the dedicated line. It’s red and usually mounted just below the phone lines on the pole. The red jacket on the cable may have faded. The lines run back to the Fire-Rescue Department, where the receiving station is located.