The "The Sirens Are A Wailing!" Story

Fire-alarm box located
in the Lancaster
Southern Market building.

It was an ordinary day.  Reading in "The Scribbler" newspaper column about the fire-alarm boxes that used to stand on metal poles along the tree-lined streets of my town or sometimes attached to a building in the historic downtown of Lancaster, PA.  The fire department of Lancaster used these boxes to help people summon emergency assistance from 1882 to 1988.  I can remember the bright red fire-boxes from when I was a young boy walking from my home on the far north end of Queen Street to choir practice at St. James Episcopal Church which is located at the corner of North Duke and East Orange Streets, about two blocks from the square in the center of town. My mile and a half journey to St. James was dotted with these bright red boxes that had a black lever that you had to pull in order to trigger the alarm.  The fire station on North Duke Street would receive the signal and disperse an engine to the fire location.  Originally fire-alarm boxes had locks on them and responsible neighbors would be given keys so they could call in fires when needed.  I guess a few neighborhood disputes between neighbors led to the fire-alarm boxes that could be triggered or pulled which would allow a spring-loaded wheel to spin and tap out a signal onto the fire alarm telegraph wire.  

New York Police call box.

The receiver at the fire station would match the signal to the location of the box and send a fire truck in response.  The boxes were usually cast iron and mounted high enough to be out of the range of most children, but low enough for smaller residents of the city.  Most of the early boxes had a gas burner in the alarm box to illuminate the window for all to see.  In the mid 1920s, electricity replaced the gas lights.  I found mention of a fire that occurred in 1883, right after the earliest of boxes were placed in the city, that the paid fire crew in Lancaster met its first major test when in November of that year alarm box number 12 signaled a conflagration at the Inquirer Printing and Publishing Building at 47 N. Queen St.  

This is a Fire and Police box from
New York that is still in service.

The fire destroyed the interior of the building and its contents.  Must have been a scary sight!  Some cities also had Police call boxes which were sealed boxes that a patrol officer could use with a key to enter and flip a switch to notify central command center that his patrol was proceeding as normal and that no assistance was necessary.  They were usually required to do this every half hour so central command knew all was well.  I have never seen any Police boxes in Lancaster, but they sound pretty neat.  Most of these emergency boxes, both fire and police, have disappeared over the years because of constant vandalism and false alarms as well as the invention of the cell phone.  Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I went on a search to find any remaining fire or police boxes that may still be in Lancaster.  

Cast iron plaque on a building at 130 East
Vine Street in the city of Lancaster. The
house dates back to 1798.   The plaque is
an insurance marker.  Fire Insurance Co.

With the help of "The Scribbler" column in the local newspaper I found an old fire-alarm box in the lobby of the Southern Market building in the south end of the city.  Not functioning any more, but still interesting.  Also found one on the side of a downtown building that is no longer red and only acts as decoration for the home.  I also discovered on several homes in the city small cast iron plaques that were known as insurance markers.  They displayed the emblem of a specific fire company and if you expected the fire company to fight a fire in your residence, you better give a donation to the fire company so you could have a marker on your house.  At times I wish I could have lived in the city when all these devices were in use.  But then again, I would miss the security and emergency response that I now have with the cell phone.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - a few more insurance company plaques follow:

This Fire Insurance plaque is on the wall of a house in the 300 block of East Orange St.

A house at 711 East Orange Street has an insurance company plaque for the Eagle Hose No. 2 Company.

This was on the house next door at 713 East Orange Street.  I'm not sure this is an authentic insurance company plaque.  It looks old, but the shiny Philip's head screws just don't seem right.   

The one firebox that I found along the streets of  Lancaster.  In front of a small store and is not functional.