I spotted this article on 1st Responder News this evening:
http://1strespondernews.com/webpages/ne ... 5eb3ed4a50
Encouraging, to say the least.
John+
If we were going to reinvent the pull box, it would be paired with a camera to get a picture of the person pulling it, and could give voice instructions (in English and Spanish) when the cover was pulled down.
False alarms are what killed the pull box. In New York City they were partially replaced by voice pull boxes but they've pretty much given up on these, too.
False alarms are what killed the pull box. In New York City they were partially replaced by voice pull boxes but they've pretty much given up on these, too.
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zetronist
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Actually, there were a number of factors that "pulled" the pull box.
False alarms certainly played a large part in their demise. When my department had pull boxes, the majority of the alarms were false. The ones that were legitimate were often aided cases requiring an ambulance. It was rare to snag a fire on a pull box, but it happened occasionally.
A bigger factor in the boxes being removed was the extremely high cost of maintaining the system. This was the major reason FDNY began removing the boxes in the late 1980's. If you think about the miles of cable needed to keep a system like this alive, even in a small community, it is a major outlay. (In NYC it ran into the millions of dollars)
It was once thought that it was important to keep pull boxes in impoverished communities because people did not have access to telephones. While that may have been true, with the advent of digital phones, that reason disappeared.
Still, I guess I am a buff at heart, and I really do miss the street boxes in the community that I serve. There was nothing like hearing those diaphones blast out the box number, and shortly thereafter hearing the sirens of the fire apparatus start up. I'm glad that West Patterson was able to keep their system up and running, if only for nostalgic reasons.
False alarms certainly played a large part in their demise. When my department had pull boxes, the majority of the alarms were false. The ones that were legitimate were often aided cases requiring an ambulance. It was rare to snag a fire on a pull box, but it happened occasionally.
A bigger factor in the boxes being removed was the extremely high cost of maintaining the system. This was the major reason FDNY began removing the boxes in the late 1980's. If you think about the miles of cable needed to keep a system like this alive, even in a small community, it is a major outlay. (In NYC it ran into the millions of dollars)
It was once thought that it was important to keep pull boxes in impoverished communities because people did not have access to telephones. While that may have been true, with the advent of digital phones, that reason disappeared.
Still, I guess I am a buff at heart, and I really do miss the street boxes in the community that I serve. There was nothing like hearing those diaphones blast out the box number, and shortly thereafter hearing the sirens of the fire apparatus start up. I'm glad that West Patterson was able to keep their system up and running, if only for nostalgic reasons.
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