Fire Department, The New York City FDNY 21
Fire Department, The New York City FDNY 21 : Alarm Receiving and Transmittal: (B) Alarm Boxes: The second most common method is by means of F. D. N. Y. fire alarm boxes located on the street and in certain public buildings such as schools and hospitals as well as along highways, on bridges, etc. These boxes primarily consist of two types. The first is the mechanical box (also commonly called a pull-box or a telegraph box) in which a spring-wound mechanism alternately opens and closes an electrical circuit, thereby rendering a coded number linked to the specific location of the box. Until the advent of the STARFIRE "Computer-Assisted Dispatch System" (C. A. D. S). , dispatchers had to audibly count the taps from mechanical boxes when they were received in the central offices. Today, a "Box Alarm Readout System" (B. A. R. S). display handles that aspect of the job. The second type is the "Emergency Reporting System" (E. R. S). box that is equipped with buttons to notify either the F. D. N. Y. or the N. Y. P. D. , allowing either department's dispatcher to have direct voice communication with a reporting party. Beginning in the 1970s, E. R. S. boxes started to replace mechanical boxes in many areas of the City. In December 1994, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then-Fire Commissioner Howard Safir began a concerted effort to remove all of the mechanical and E. R. S. boxes throughout New York City in a cost-cutting move. Facing stiff opposition from members of the City Council, community groups, dispatchers and others, the move was blocked by court order as being discriminatory against the disabled[i. e. , particularly the speech- and/or hearing-impaired] who - along with the poor - might otherwise have no dependable way to report fires and emergencies if the alarm boxes were eliminated. (In addition, unlike many other cities in the world, it was noted that 117 different languages and dialects are spoken by the residents of and visitors to the "Big Apple". Since, unlike telephones, a fire alarm box requires no verbal contact to indicate its exact location, a person would not have to be able to speak - at all - or to understand English in order to alert the F. D. N. Y. to a fire or emergency. For this reason, as well, the boxes were recognized as being vital to New Yorkers' safety)
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