Some of these included an 'ear-shattering' wail that would cause discomfort to someone activating the box, while others would handcuff a detachable part of the device to the person triggering the alarm, so that responding police and fire officials (who possessed the key for release) could more easily identify and contact the individual responsible for the activated alarm. In the later years of their use and proliferation, some fire boxes were designed with special devices and other functions in place in an attempt to curb the nuisance of false alarms. ĭespite lack of popular awareness that the boxes still work, a fire box was used to report a fire in Boston in December 2018 during a 9-1-1 outage. Some may also refer to this as a fire alarm control panel or fire alarm panel.

The simplicity of telegraph alarm boxes and their associated networks means that they are able to operate under conditions (such as a lengthy or widespread power outage, a natural disaster, or any emergency causing many people to attempt to contact others simultaneously) which may disrupt or disable other communication systems such as landline phones, cellular phones, and emergency services' radio systems. The fire alarm control unit serves as the brain of the fire alarm system by monitoring all the inputs and controlling all the outputs.

Some municipalities still maintain their fire alarm boxes near schools and other sensitive locations. Cities like San Francisco still rely heavily on fire alarm boxes for redundancy in case of emergency.

Though fire alarm boxes remain in use, many communities have removed them, relying instead on the widespread availability of landline and cellular telephones.

Gamewell fire alarm box ( Ridgewood, New Jersey)

Download red fire alarm box